I was ecstatic to read the latest installment of the Thursday Murder Club, The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman. His quirky, complex characters and the ridiculous situation they get into make me laugh out loud. My minor complaint is there are many characters, and I get confused if I've encountered this or that person in his previous books. Is there something crucial I'm supposed to remember? In the third book, the Murder Club takes on a cold case of a missing-presumed-dead reporter who was about to break a huge story. There is also continuing fallout from previous cases. Spicing things up is a dash of romance amongst the senior set. 👵🏻 ❤️👴🏻
The Dry by Jane Harper was also a mystery. It appears a struggling farmer, Luke, kills his wife, son, and himself. His estranged best friend, Aaron Falk, returns to the rural town that drove him away to attend the funeral. He gets roped into investigating the deaths. Harper paced this book well. Luckily I started it early in the day because it sucked me in, and I didn't want to stop until I reached the end. I listened to the audiobook, and the accents added to the Australian setting. It was a tense, secretive story that kept me guessing till the end.
Both the mystery books I read this week were stellar, but in different ways. Reading them one after the other caused me to appreciate the skill it takes to build a compelling mystery and the various paths authors take to achieve their goals. 🤩
I find Elizabeth Strout to be a gifted author. When I read her books, I am wrapped in the sadness and struggle of her characters because their voices are that authentic. Lucy by the Sea continues the story of Lucy Barton, a fresh widow who lives in New York when the pandemic strikes. Her ex-husband William convinces her to go with him to Maine until it passes. About three weeks or so, right? Strout captures the terror and unpredictability so well. I returned to the world of washing my groceries, isolation, and worry. Lucy has a complicated relationship with her rural roots and family. This cripples her enjoyment of the family she's created as she battles self-doubt and anxiety. It is written in the first person. Having read the previous books in the series, I feel I'm residing in Lucy's head, hearing her thoughts and wrestling with her concerns. Her self-talk is abysmal, realistic, and too much like my own. She makes me feel my latent sadness and fear as I enjoy her first-rate writing.😢😱
I'm so glad the next book I picked up was this one.
Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic was the antidote to depressing inner monologue of Lucy Barton. Gilbert kicks butt and takes names when it comes to facing her fears surrounding creativity. This was my second read through this book and I liked it even better this time. Her enthusiasm and just-try attitude fired me up to invest in writing. I am inspired by her letter to fear because it is a negative self talk neutralizer. 😌
Here is a cute video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utW2cq17nBk
What a great reading week I had with four stellar, wildly different books. 📚
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