The Fury

I loved the author’s The Silent Patient and had high expectations for The Fury. Thus, I selected The Fury for this month's entry in the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. The book was published in January 2024. 

The publisher's summary: 

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

I did not enjoy the book. I picked up a copy of it because I loved The Silent Patient. My expectation for this book was high but it just never grabbed my attention. There was too much narration and I had to continually think about who the narrator was. During my read, I couldn't figure out why this person was the narrator. After reading one third of the story, the murder finally happened. At the midway point of the story there was still no investigation of the crime. Why? This is supposed to be a psychological thriller.

There wasn't any character development. None of the characters were likable and I think that's due to all the narration. The characters were flat. They did not communicate with each other because the narrator couldn't shut up. He was always promising a new twist but they didn't materialize. I can't help but feel disappointed with the book. While I read it until the end, it never grabbed my attention.

1 out of 5 stars.

Return of the Monarchs

I picked up Return of the Monarchs for the Key Word Challenge. I later realized that the book is only 116 pages long, not long enough to meet the challenge requirements. It was a lovely story just the same.

 

The publisher's summary:

Janelle Herron isn’t interested in having a boyfriend. She wears black clothes, dark makeup, and sees herself metaphorically as a caterpillar who hopes to transform into a butterfly someday. She hopes that she will grow into a vision of herself that she can live with, and she has her reasons—reasons that only her parents are aware of—but that doesn’t include having a romantic relationship. But when she sees a handsome Amish man being harassed by bullies, she gets involved and becomes friends with Thomas Schrock. He’s safe. They can never be together romantically because he’s Amish.

Thomas Schrock is intrigued—and a little embarrassed—when a Goth-looking young English woman intervenes in a one-sided fight Thomas is about to be lured into by three bullies. Janelle is spunky, brave, and might even be pretty behind all the dark makeup she wears. She is easy to talk to, fun to be around, and as they spend more time together, he begins to understand some of the reasons she dresses the way she does. But as Janelle and Thomas’s feelings begin to lean toward romance, Janelle holds tightly to a secret she has no plans to share. Her plan is to stay on course and leave for college at the end of the summer.

But will a magical meadow filled with monarchs and a little divine intervention turn things around for Janelle? Will she finally share her secret with Thomas and become the butterfly she’s always wanted to be?

 

The plot was simple. It’s the usual boy meets girl and they live happily ever after. However, in this story Janelle has to adjust to life with a severe disfigurement after being burned in a fire. That is not an easy or quick adjustment and it's the reason she covers herself up with black clothes and heavy black makeup. She has a long way to go to accept her new physical appearance. This includes running away from people who get too close. Thomas is not shocked at all by the condition of her skin. He accepts her as she is. After Thomas shows her a local butterfly farm, Janelle begins to peel away all the restrictions that she placed on her life. How this story ends isn’t revealed until the Epilogue. I won't be a spoiler.

The story was a quick but satisfying read. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Saint Laurent Muse

I was lucky to receive an advanced review copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. C. W. Gortner is one of my favorite authors and I have been anxiously awaiting his new novel . The Saint Laurent Muse will be published on March 18, 2025.

The publisher's summary:  

The Paris runways of the 70s come to wild and splashy life in this novel of fashion's “It Girl” Loulou de la Falaise and her life partying and designing with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston. Nightlife! Gowns! Cocaine! Glamour!

It’s the 1970s, and from hippie London to Warhol’s Factory in New York, reluctant aristocrat Loulou de la Falaise is desperately seeking adventure. Having escaped an early, unhappy marriage, she arrives on a whim in Paris—the champagne-soaked heart of the fashion world, where the rigid old world of haute couture and the ffast-paced new world of ready-to-wear are vying for supremacy.

Glamour, sex, and cocaine nights fuel the Paris fashion scene. Its crown prince is the soulful and intensely gifted Yves Saint Laurent, whose sexy tuxedos for women and chic Rive Gauche boutiques reflect women’s desire for seductive independence, a desire Loulou knows all too well.

Loulou’s bohemian flair immediately captures Saint Laurent’s attention, and they embark on a glorious intimate friendship as artist and muse. Together they revel in the excesses of high society, decadent parties, and the hedonistic underworld of gay nightclubs, where the young and beautiful become prey, and dangerous rivalries start to emerge. Their course collides with eccentric designer Karl Lagerfeld, intent on his own conquest. Lagerfeld’s bitter professional rivalry with Yves divides Paris even in an era when anything goes. As Yves plunges into a dangerous, secret affair with Karl’s enigmatic young companion, and Loulou finds herself falling in love with a colleague’s handsome boyfriend, evanescent illusion and savage deception will bring them to the brink of ruin.

Intoxicating and unforgettable, The Saint Laurent Muse is the dramatic imagining of a lifelong friendship between two kindred spirits, and of a tumultuous time and place in fashion history that will never be seen again.

I had a difficult time becoming interested in the book. Alot of characters were introduced in the first 40 pages and I couldn't keep them straight. When Loulou began working for St. Laurent, around page 60, the characters were kept to a minimum as the focus was on the shop where the designers worked. The story then took off. However, my confusion over the plot was based upon the main character not being as famous as other women that Gortner has written about, such as Coco Chanel and Lucretia Borgia. I searched Wikipedia to determine whether Loulou was a real life person and she was. She was the second of three muses that Yves Saint Laurent had in his studio. Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Halston are featured prominently for their drug use at parties as well as their competition with Yves.

What was Yves Saint Laurent known for? He was the first haute couture designer to sell a ready to wear collection. He also changed his style of clothing to bohemian. Loulou was the inspiration for these designs. She wanted women to feel comfortable with their clothing. Loulou created jewelry for herself to wear at the parties that she attended. Yves liked them enough to eventually promote her to be the jewelry designer for his brand. Other firsts for him included the creation of the beatnik look, the pea coat, smock tops, and thigh high boots. Saint Laurent is often said to be the designer responsible for the acceptance of women wearing of pants. 

It was fun to read about the suits that Yves was famous for creating. A tuxedo for women, Le Smoking, was one such creation. I remember seeing a lady where one at a party I attended many years ago and was impressed with it. I was lucky though, early in my career, to own one of his suits.

The party scene in Paris was distasteful. Although accurate in its description, I hated to read about all the cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use at the nightly parties that the staff engaged in. I don't know how anyone would be able to work the next day after partying to 2 am, but they did. Also, Loulou was promiscuous and I wondered whether she would contract HIV. 

All in all, The Saint Laurent Muse is a compelling read. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Verifiers

The Verifiers was one of the Washington Post's best mystery books for 2022. This debut novel follows amateur sleuth Claudia Lin as she verifies people's online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. 

The publisher's summary:  

Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she's just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. 

 

A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she's landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit. Part literary mystery, part family story, The Verifiers is a clever and incisive examination of how technology shapes our choices, and the nature of romantic love in the digital age.

I love Claudia's method of investigation. Claudia is inspired by her favorite amateur sleuths and thinks back to the steps they followed in their own investigations. Likewise, when Claudia becomes stumped she thinks about the villains she has read about and how they committed murder. She particularly loves the 'Inspector Yuan' mystery series. The second book in the series, The Rivals, follows these strategies so I expect that future books will continue in this vein. 

The story opens with Claudia meeting a new client, Sarah Reaves, who has the feeling her latest match may not the wonderful guy that she thinks he is. Claudia's company, Veracity, is a business that performs investigations, both electronic and in-person, for those customers using match-making apps but who are having some doubts about their matches. They are able to access the databases of several dating apps. Claudia determines that Sarah's match, Jude Kalman, has been chatting with three other women. She decides to stake out his home but never finds him coming or going. A week or so later, Sarah's sister Iris visits the Veracity offices to request an investigation into her match. She does not mention that Sarah killed herself. Claudia believes that these are not suicidal deaths but murder and, after being told to close this file, she continues to investigate. 

Author Jane Pek was born and grew up in Singapore. She holds a BA from Yale University, a JD from the New York University School of Law, and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives in New York, where she works as a lawyer at a global investment company.

This book was a fun read. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Christmas themed cozy mystery while sitting on my couch with some hot chocolate. Christmas is the only time of year that I actually like winter weather and looking outside at the snow with a good book. Sleep in Heavenly Pizza is the fourth book in Mindy Quigley's Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin pizzeria.

In this installment of the series pizza chef Delilah O’Leary and her staff are serving at a private party where the nation’s premier snow sculpting championship is held. On the eve of the festival though, a too-good-to-be-true Chrismukkah catering gig heralds an unexpected visit from Delilah’s high-intensity older sister. Then one of the town’s snowy sculptures is discovered with a dead body inside. CCTV showed the slightly clad deceased woman being pushed off a balcony and sliding downhill. Delilah’s boyfriend Calvin Capone heads the police investigation. His investigation keeps coming back to two of Delilah’s employees and two of her family members. 

Delilah is a control freak who tries to figure out who could have a motive for murder. She questions her people to get information but doesn't always tell Capone her findings. She wants to protect her friends and family. They have been arguing throughout the story which is unusual for the series. They are normally lovey dovey.  

The whydunnit for the murder was a let down for me. I was expecting something more complex. However, after the big reveal Delilah and her family's sit down Christmas dinner was a heartwarming scene. I wish I could be part of this family. As usual, there are recipes at the end of the story. I will be trying the Christmas tree pizza bread recipe.

All in all, this was a fun read. I am rating the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Death at a Scottish Wedding

I have read the other two installments of this series and loved them. Death at a Scottish Wedding was no different. It is a lovely locked room mystery.

The publisher's summary: 

Dr. Emilia McRoy is back on the case in the second book in the Scottish Isle mystery series, perfect for fans of Sheila Connolly and Charlene O’Connor.

Something old, something new, something borrowed and someone’s blue…

Finally feeling like Sea Isle, Scotland is becoming her new home, American doctor Emilia McRoy is delighted when she is invited to a wedding at Morrigan's Castle. Her friends have warned her that it's a three-day party and it's bound to get wild, not to mention the impending snowstorm. Constable Ewan Campbell, owner of the castle, ensures their safety with the blizzard. What he didn’t ensure, is that all of his guests would survive the night alive. When Emilia explores the impressive castle, she finds a dead man in one of the turrets.

The snowstorm hits and the local police can’t reach the castle until it lets up. With no one able to leave, the family insists they carry on with the wedding, which makes Emilia's job as the coroner a bit easier—the suspects are in one place­––and complicated because the killer has Emilia in his sights. The fact no one claims to know the victim isn't helping. Why would someone no one knows be murdered at a castle in the middle of nowhere?

It’s up to Emilia to uncover the mystery who the victim is, so the killer doesn’t get away Scot free.

I love the setting for this series. While I am enjoying reading about Sea Isle, I am also enjoying the castle setting. The rooms where events take place are meticulously described and add to that "locked castle" backdrop. The mystery itself wasn't as fast paced as it should have been. There was alot of pointless dialogue that slowed things down. That said, the twists in the plot kept me guessing at the identity of the whodunnit. I also love the two main characters: Emilia and Ewan. They are complete opposites but work together well. Ewen has an air of mystery about him as his character's identity is slowly being revealed throughout the series. In each installment we have read about him performing some bizarre activity which points to another aspect of his personality. It is fun to read about his exploits. Concerning Emilia, I like that she gave up the rat race for a job in the middle of nowhere. This new job is challenging but primarily because she needs to adjust to a different environment. In each novel the reader sees Emilia continuing to learn about the area that she moved to. and it always has something to do with the mystery.

This novel was not as entertaining as the first in the series. There is a 3rd book in the series which I read and reviewed last year. It too was fantastic. I will definitely continue reading this series but Death at a Scottish Wedding is only 3 out of 5 stars.

2025 Reading By The Numbers Reading Challenge

2025 will be the fourth year of the Reading by the Numbers Challenge on the My Reader's Block blog! This is the reading challenge at its most basic - just track everything you read. This is the easiest challenge I have ever come across so I will be rejoining the challenge in 2025. Anything counts--graphic novels or comic books, hard copy, e-books, audio novels, etc. If it is a book, it counts. Although the covers shown in the challenge image are all mysteries, you may read from any and all genres that interest you.

• Challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2025.

• No pre-set challenge levels. You decide on your personal goal.

• May be used concurrently with other "number" reading challenges (such as the Goodreads Challenge) or with any other challenge.

• A blog and reviews of the books are not required to participate, but if you have a blog, please post your sign-up for the challenge and link the post in the form on the challenge post. You are also welcome to link up other media sites where you log process (Instagram; Goodreads; etc.).

• There will be a challenge Headquarters link in the left sidebar of the My Reader's Block blog at the beginning of the year.

• If you post on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media to log a book, please use #ReadingByNumbers2025.