U is for Undertow / Sue Grafton

It had been awhile since I’d read Sue Grafton and picking up a book with P.I. Kinsey Millhone was like reacquainting oneself with an old friend. It’s so reassuring to revisit wonderful characters such as benevolent landlord and retired baker Henry and pushy Hungarian restauranteur Rosie. Kinsey’s self-deprecation, sense of humor, and often mildly misanthropic tendencies make her a memorable and enduring personality in the realm of detective fiction. Oh, and she's a smart cookie. Plus the fact that she is in a timewarp circa 1988 makes reading the alphabet mysteries a bit of a nostalgia trip as well. I never thought Grafton would reach the end of the alphabet, but the strength and freshness of the plot of U is for Undertow is proof that this series should easily make it to Z and perhaps beyond.

Note 1-3-2011 My reunion with Kinsey was so wonderful, I picked up T is for Trespass and found it an even more compelling read. And you don't have to read these in order!

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Murder in Passy, An Aimée Leduc Investigation / Cara Black

If you like your mysteries set in European locales, here’s a Parisian detective series that is sure to please. Aimée Leduc is a private eye, born of a French career detective and an absentee American mother (brief hints of angst over this in this installment). She’s appeared in about ten adventures, always set in iconic Parisian neighborhoods : Murder in the Marais, Murder in the Bastille, Murder in Montmartre, and Murder in the Latin Quarter , to name a few. In Murder in Passy (Paris’s tony XVIe arrondissement), Aimée finds herself mixed up in a murderous intrigue involving the French arm of the Basque nationalist movement. The final chase involves the kidnapping of a Spanish princess, a secret torture chamber used by the Gestapo in WWII, and a rooftop escape. The author sprinkles enough French words into the dialogue to either annoy you or make you feel your French 101 was not for nothing— Zut alors! très chic, c’est parfait, désolé, c’est tout! Oh, and Aimée’s frequent stop...

Addie Pray / Joe David Brown (more recently published as Paper Moon ) Click here to check for availability at AFPLS This 1971 novel was the inspiration for the Peter Bogdanovich movie Paper Moon . Eleven-year-old Addie and her maybe-father “Long Boy” Moses Pray crisscross the Deep South “ramifying” (scamming) people during the Great Depression. Addie’s street smarts and perceived girlish innocence, along with Long Boy’s cleverness and shrewd business acumen build their operation until they are dealing in millions. The movie remained pretty true to the first half of the book (though it moved the location from Alabama to Kansas), but the adventures continue far beyond where the movie left off. The decades haven’t dimmed the magic of this rollicking adventure, either in the film or the book. ©Ken Vesey, 17 June 2010

The Silent Patient / Alex Michaelides

A woman viciously murders her seemingly doting husband. We meet up with her several years later in a mental facility, where a therapist tries to get her to speak and to reveal her story. Who is innocent and who is the victim? The answer isn’t straightforward. The resolution to the novel features a real twist that will have the reader questioning the chronology of the different narrative threads in the book. A real page-turner.

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