Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

January 26, 2023

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

Leo Demidov, former KGB agent, and his family are living in reduced circumstances in Moscow since Leo left his position as one of Stalin's agents. But they are happy: Leo is a factory manager, his wife Raisa is a teacher, and their two daughters are in high school. When Raisa and the girls are given the opportunity to visit the U.S. as part of a goodwill tour, Leo has a bad feeling in his gut about the whole enterprise. But there isn't any choice in the matter, so his family heads off to America while Leo remains behind in Russia. The tour starts off well, but then disaster strikes and Leo's family is shattered. Leo resolves to find out who is responsible, no matter what measures he has to take, even if it takes the rest of his life.

Third in the Demidov series, and probably the last one, since Leo is back in the USSR after defecting to the U.S., in prison and awaiting trial. I'm sure many readers were dissatisfied with the ending, and while it wasn't a happy ending, it was a logical conclusion. I don't remember a lot about the Cold War, but I do know there were no fairy tale or magical endings when someone committed what the Soviets considered to be a crime against the state. 

Lubyanka Prison, Moscow

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

January 20, 2023

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

P. D. James presents a mystery featuring characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It's five years since the end of Pride and Prejudice, and the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. They are happily married with two little boys. Elizabeth's sisters Jane and Mary are also married (unexpectedly, in Mary's case), while youngest sister Kitty remains contentedly at home with their parents. Middle sister Lydia is married to Wickham, the man that she (scandalously) eloped with, and due to the scandal their elopement generated, the Darcys do not meet the couple socially, and they are not received at Pemberley, the Darcys' estate. All of that changes on the eve of the Darcys annual ball, when a carriage careens up to Pemberly and Lydia emerges, screaming that her husband has been murdered. (Lydia was not invited to the ball and was planning on gate-crashing the event.)

Meh. Basically Jane Austen fan fiction. P. D. James is a great mystery writer, and this is not her best effort. The mystery itself is pretty weak. Only for diehard JA fans. Which I'm not.

The Pemberley estate, from the film adaptation

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

January 18, 2023

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra, princess of Sparta, queen of Mycenae, is a wicked woman who took a lover and then murdered her husband Agamemnon when he came home from the Trojan war. But in this novel about Clytemnestra's life, there were much deeper reasons and Agamemnon richly deserved to be murdered. As the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold.

The writer of the Odyssey and the Iliad deliberately portrayed Clytemnestra and her sister Helen as wicked women. Clytemnestra murdered her husband and Helen ran off with a Trojan prince, and that's pretty much all most people know about them. It's time that their stories were told. Clytemnestra had good reasons for her actions, as did Helen (before she was Helen of Troy, she was Helen of Sparta). All those Greek heroes don't come off as so heroic here. Even the great Odysseus, considered to be the best and smartest of the Greek kings, does some pretty shameful things. Fans of Madeline Miller's Circe or Natalie Haynes' A Thousand Ships will enjoy this re-telling of the life of a mis-represented queen. Highly recommended.

(My father loved Greek mythology - damn, he would have hated all three of these books for crushing his beliefs about the ancient Greeks!)

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in return for a review.

Image of Clytemnestra with her lover Aegisthus, murdering Agamemnon, from a piece of Greek pottery

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

January 14, 2023

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

On a spring morning, little wooden boxes show up at every door in the world, even non-traditional doors such as Bedouin tent flaps and next to homeless people sleeping outdoors. Every adult over the age of 21 receives a box with their name on it. Inside the box is a string that measures the length of each person's life. Nina, a magazine editor, gets a long string while her girlfriend Maura's string is barely half the length of Nina's, yet they stay together. Nina's parents and her sister Amie opt to not open their boxes, preferring to live in blissful ignorance. Ben, an architect, gets a short string and his girlfriend of two years breaks up with him almost immediately. Hank is an emergency room doctor who receives a short string and decides to resign from the hospital and use his remaining time as best he can. Political figures, governments, and religions all weigh in on the importance, meaning, and origin of the strings. What do the strings really mean? How will they change society and impact the future? Written by several narrators with differing viewpoints.

Normally when I see a book with one of those celebrity book club stickers on the cover, I go the other way or don't expect much, in this case the "Read with Jenna" TV book club. I decided to read this book since it was recommended to me by a friend. It's an interesting take on a futuristic/dystopian society combined with the mythology of the Fates and also the story of Pandora. After people begin receiving the strings, the societal response is similar to the varied responses to COVID-19 and the vaccines: some extreme, some violent, some benign, some believing it's a hoax, some looking to profit. Highly recommended.

"Que sera, sera (Whatever will be, will be)" - song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, sung by Doris Day

The Fates — Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos — were divinities in Greek mythology who presided over human life. Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis measure it out, and Atropos cut it off. They represented birth, life and death.

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

January 10, 2023

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Camille and Caleb Fang are performance artists who present their interpretations of literary classics. They drag their two children, Annie and Buster, along to assist them. Their goal is to disrupt a normal situation, such as a wedding, a visit to a fast food restaurant, or a school play. Fast forward 20 years and Annie is an actor while Buster is a freelance journalist struggling to write his third novel. As adults, both Annie and Buster make bad decisions: Buster takes an assignment to interview a group of army veterans who have modified army weapons to make a potato cannon and agrees to let them shoot a potato off his head, while Annie's career goes up in flames after she agrees to do a topless scene in a movie but takes things too far by wandering around the set topless while the crew takes pictures of her and then getting involved with another female actor. They both return to the family home to find their parents missing. The police think something really happened to the Fang parents, while Annie and Buster are convinced it's just another performance stunt. Guess who's right?

Not as good as Wilson's other novels, especially Nothing to See Here. The Fang family are quirky and have an unusual world view. The adult Annie and Buster make a lot of decisions/choices that seem like a good idea at the time. Or maybe not, considering their parents' careers. The phrase that forms the basis of Wilson's novel Now is Not the Time to Panic originates in this book. In the movie version, Buster's name was changed to Baxter.

An example of performance art - sometimes nothing happens, while at other times, the audience is involved

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

January 8, 2023

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

The conclusion to The Harold Fry trilogy. Maureen is Harold's wife, prickly and somewhat literal minded. She is suspicious and has a hard time recognizing the goodness in others. For ten years, since Queenie Hennessey's death, she has been obsessing over Queenie's sea garden, after Harold's friend Kate wrote to tell them that Queenie had made a memorial to Harold and Maureen's son David. Maureen is actually outraged, convinced that Queenie wanted to "take" first Harold and then David from her. Finally Harold tells Maureen that she has to go see the garden to understand Queen and move on with their lives.

A novella rather than a full-length novel. Maureen is not as likeable as Harold or Queenie. She has difficulty connecting with people she does not know and is so deep in her own grief that she cannot fathom that others are grieving as well. When she first meets Kate, she cannot get beyond the clutter and dirt of Kate's home to see the kind, caring person that Kate is. Having grown up without love, Maureen has difficulty loving others and being loved, but Harold sees the sweetness in her. On her journey, Maureen finds answers to questions she didn't know she had. A lovely conclusion to the trilogy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A driftwood garden

The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo

January 5, 2023

The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo

The United States and the rest of the superpowers lost the Falklands conflict after Argentine developed a psychopigment weapon of mass destruction called Deepest Blue. Psychopigments alter human emotions positively or negatively. Kay Curtida is a Latinx detective with the Psychopigment Enforcement Agency, tasked with tracking down black market distributors of psychopigments in the sleepy town of Daly City just outside the ruins of San Francisco. When an old friend visits Daly City and drops hints about a ring selling fake Sunshine Yellow. Sunshine Yellow is an antidepressant pigment that most people take just to get through their day. The fake yellow pigment, called Shamshine Yellow, mixes the real pigment with Slate Gray, a major depressive.

This was a really creative and clever take on a dystopian society. The characters are well-written and engaging but the plot was very complicated and at times I had a hard time figuring out what was going on and keeping all the characters and their affiliations straight. The names of some of the pigments are clever: Ginger Curiosity, Cool Teal, Lavender Hope. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.