The Understudy / David Nicholls

I must say I really have enjoyed reading David Nicholls, first with One Day, then A Question of Attraction, and now finishing up with The Understudy. They're all light reading-- no Tolstoy or Joyce here-- but if you're looking for a laugh and an entertaining diversion, you won't be disappointed.

In this novel he follows the life of actor Stephen C. McQueen (no, not that Steve McQueen), the understudy to movie heartthrob Josh Harper, who is doing a turn in a one-man play on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End. Stephen is literally waiting in the wings for his big break, weary of reprising the role of Sammy the Singing Squirrel to make ends meet, but the leading man is never ill, so Stephen never gets his chance to take center stage. His life off-stage is what really is the main interest here, and when it begins to intersect with his stage life things start to get interesting. Stephen makes a Faustian bargain with Josh Harper, which involves his American wife (whom Stephen fancies), having his chance to headline the show, and keeping secrets about Josh Harper's many romances.

Nicholls's characters are well-drawn and true-to-life, they're witty and interesting. The only place I think he stumbled was with the character of 7-year-old Sophie, Stephen's daughter, who spoke and acted like a sophisticated 16-year-old. Nevertheless, this is a funny and well-plotted novel. Another enjoyable read by Mr. Nicholls.

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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...

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.

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

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