Book Recommendation: Challenger

It was 39 years ago today. The world watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded live on television. There were no survivors, but there were plenty of questions raised afterwards.

I read Challenger by Adam Higginbotham at the end of November. Knowing the anniversary was coming up, I waited to post this recommendation.

This book was eye opening on so many levels. I suppose it is always easier to look back and see the red flags after knowing the outcome. It’s like all the missed signs and cues that led to the Pearl Harbor attack. They were right there, but they were blown off or not taken seriously.

In order to understand the Challenger disaster, you have to start a few years before. Higginbotham does just that. He lays all the groundwork and presents all the info to help you see just how preventable this disaster was. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

The definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster based on new archival research and in-depth reporting.

On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions of Americans witnessed the tragic deaths of a crew including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in 20th-century history—yet the details of what took place that day, and why, have largely been forgotten. Until now.

Based on extensive archival records and meticulous, original reporting, Challenger follows a handful of central protagonists—including each of the seven members of the doomed crew—through the years leading up to the accident, a detailed account of the tragedy itself, and into the investigation that followed. It’s a tale of optimism and promise undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige; of hubris and heroism; and of an investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers determined to bring the truth to light. Throughout, there are the ominous warning signs of a tragedy to come, recognized but then ignored, and ultimately kept from the public.

Higginbotham reveals the history of the shuttle program, the lives of men and women whose stories have been overshadowed by the disaster as well as the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled against the odds to get the first shuttle into space.

I was totally fascinated by this book. At times, it could feel a bit too scientific for me. However, to walk alongside the engineers, the astronauts, and the people involved helped to grasp it all. What were they feeling? How something so big, be overlooked? Were the lives of the astronauts worth gambling with? How did the decision makers even begin to cope with the outcome of their actions?

This was truly a thorough and fantastic work on the events that led up to the Challenger tragedy.

5 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – The Lake of Lost Girls

My phone dinged one night at about 1:30am. Usually I put it on silent, but that night I hadn’t. I picked up my phone and read the text from my wife.

“OMG! You have GOT to read this one!” It came with a screen shot of the cover. That is what led to my reading this book. She was right! It was SO good!

This is the first book I have read by Katherine Greene. Turns out that Katherine Greene is just the pen name of bestselling authors A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley. I am unfamiliar with them, but I will explore their work a bit more both separately and collectively (as Greene) thanks to this book.

Before I get into my thoughts, let me give you the Goodreads synopsis:

Told in alternating timelines, The Lake of Lost Girls is a haunting novel that will thrill fans of All Good People Here and We Are All the Same in the Dark.

Using suspenseful podcast clips to weave a twisty tale of a missing student and her sister who is desperate for answers, The Lake of Lost Girls is perfect for fans of I Have Some Questions for You.

It’s 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina. But freshman Jessica Fadley, once a bright and responsible student, is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears.

Twenty-four years later, Jessica’s sister Lindsey is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast, Ten Seconds to Vanish, that focuses on the cold cases, to guide her own investigation. Soon, interest reaches fever pitch when the bodies of the long-missing women begin turning up at a local lake, which leads Lindsey down a disturbing road of discovery.

In the present, one sister seeks to untangle a complicated web of lies.
In the past, the other descends ever deeper into a darkness that will lead to her ultimate fate.

This propulsive and chilling suspense is a sharp examination of sisterhood and the culture of true crime.

My wife’s challenge to me was that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out. For the most part, she was right. The ending was quite the surprise. I wasn’t too far off on who I thought was responsible, but the way it all came together – I never saw it coming.

I have come to really enjoy books that have the alternating time lines. I enjoy how they shed light on each other and eventually all come together.

Like any other mystery, there was a red herring or two to throw you off the trail. The one was kind of obvious, but that only made me read more carefully. It didn’t matter, though, as the story was so good that the obvious clues weren’t so obvious.

I gave this book 4 stars, but for one reason only. I have read other books with a “podcast” element to it. Those did it really well. The podcast in this book could have been eliminated and worked. The hosts of the podcast were just annoying. It was almost like listening to two junior high girls talking.

Do the podcast segments offer things to move the plot? I suppose, but it could have been done much better in my opinion. To me, it could have been done by having the main character give a recap of what she heard on the podcast without ever having to have the hosts show up. Thankfully, the podcast portions of the book are usually short.

I really enjoyed this book. If you figure out the ending, I’d love to hear what led you to the answer. It’s easy to look back afterward and say, “Oh. That’s why (Insert clue I missed here)!” Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Four our of five stars!

Book Recommendation – Miss Benson’s Beetle

There are currently 275 books on my “Want to read” list on Goodreads. Because I do most of my “reading” in the car, I look for audio books. Not all of them are available in that format. There are quite a few that I may just have to go to the library and get the physical copy.

As I get close to finishing a book, I begin to scroll my list and look for the next read. As I do this, I try to remember my friends who have read it and rated it. I also try to remember if a book was highly praised in a Facebook reading group.

Miss Benson’s Beetle really is something that I don’t think I would have picked up for myself. However, I kept hearing what a great story it was. The reviews I read were mostly good and so I gave it a shot. Even though the book take place after World War II, it came on a lot of Historical Fiction lists.

Before I offer my thoughts, let’s look at the Goodreads Synopsis:

It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II. Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point. She decides to abandon her job and small existence to set out on an expedition. The expedition is to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession. That obsession is an insect that may or may not exist–the golden beetle of New Caledonia.

When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her. The woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. Together, however, these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations. It also delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

All in all, I truly enjoyed the book. The adventure is full of surprises, shady characters and secrets. There are moments of suspense and moments that make your eyes well up. It was better than I had expected. I mean, it’s a woman looking for a beetle. I didn’t expect much.

My only issue with the book was that I hoped for more at the end. Without giving away anything, I will just say that I wanted to know a bit more of what happened after their trip. It wasn’t a bad ending, I just felt there may have been a loose end or two to tie up. Do they find what they are looking for? Do they find the elusive beetle? You’ll have to read it to find out.

Book Recommendation – A Talent For Murder

According to my Goodreads “Year in Books,” I read 60 books last year. I was a bit overzealous when I said I wanted to read 100.

Among those 60 were The Kind Worth Killing and The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson. They feature Lily Kintner and Henry Kimball. Two friends who become friends in a very odd way. No spoilers here. In June of 2024, he released A Talent For Murder. This is the third book to feature Henry and Lily.

It recently became available on the Libby or Hoopla app from my library. It is a book that you can easily read as a stand alone if you had to. Any reference as to what happened in the first two books, is brief and not rehashed. I have stopped many books in a series because the spend half the book retelling the previous book.

This book had plenty of suspense and I really enjoyed it. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.

Swanson is one of those writers that is creative and throws many surprises at you. I am already excited to see his next offering.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Book Recommendation: A Christmas Carol Murder

This year I read quite a few Christmas themed stories in December. One of them came up in a generic search on the Hoopla app. The author, Heather Redmond, was new to me. I’m a fan, as you know, of A Christmas Carol. So a murder mystery entitled A Christmas Carol Murder peaked my interest.

What I was unaware of at the time was that this is the third book in a series. I have to admit, the concept of this series is an interesting one. Each of the five books is part of “A Dickens of a Crime” series and feature – Charles Dickens.

The series takes place in 1835-1836 and follows a young Charles Dickens as a journalist for the Evening Chronicle. In the series, Charles and his fiancé, Kate, are amateur detectives who set out to solve crimes. Each of the book’s titles are a play on a Dickens classic. They are:

A Tale of Two Murders (A Tale of Two Cities)
Grave Expectations (Great Expectations)
A Christmas Carol Murder (A Christmas Carol)
The Pickwick Murders (The Pickwick Papers)
A Twist of Murder (Oliver Twist)

The characters in A Christmas Carol Murder all (purposely, I’m guessing) have names similar to characters in A Christmas Carol. Emmanuel Screws sounds a lot like Ebenezer Scrooge, while Jacob Harley (his partner) sounds like Jacob Marley. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine the other books follow this same pattern.

Anyway, let me give you the Goodreads synopsis, in case you want to read it now or next Christmas.

The latest novel from Heather Redmond’s acclaimed mystery series finds young Charles Dickens suspecting a miser of pushing his partner out a window, but his fiancée Kate Hogarth takes a more charitable view of the old man’s innocence . . .

London, December 1835: Charles and Kate are out with friends and family for a chilly night of caroling and good cheer. But their blood truly runs cold when their singing is interrupted by a body plummeting from an upper window of a house. They soon learn the dead man at their feet, his neck strangely wrapped in chains, is Jacob Harley, the business partner of the resident of the house, an unpleasant codger who owns a counting house, one Emmanuel Screws.

Ever the journalist, Charles dedicates himself to discovering who’s behind the diabolical defenestration. But before he can investigate further, Harley’s corpse is stolen. Following that, Charles is visited in his quarters by what appears to be Harley’s ghost—or is it merely Charles’s overwrought imagination? He continues to suspect Emmanuel, the same penurious penny pincher who denied his father a loan years ago, but Kate insists the old man is too weak to heave a body out a window. Their mutual affection and admiration can accommodate a difference of opinion, but matters are complicated by the unexpected arrival of an infant orphan. Charles must find the child a home while solving a murder, to ensure that the next one in chains is the guilty party . . .

Again, I thought this was a neat idea. It is fun to imagine that these characters and bits of the mystery itself might just influence Dickens. Perhaps influence him enough to use them in his Christmas Carol story.

The story was a fun read. I’m not sure that I will get the others in the series, but who knows. I’m not that familiar with the other Dickens books. I don’t know that I would get all the “tie ins” in them. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t, however. I’m sure that any Dickens fan will love the series and appreciate it more than me.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Recommendation – Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

After waiting quite a while, today’s recommendation finally became available last week. Benjamin Stevenson’s “Holiday Special” is a short mystery featuring his character Ernest Cunningham.

I read the first book in this series, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone a while back. I loved the honesty of the narrator. He is always sure to give the reader all the clues needed to solve the mystery. I loved it.

The follow-up, Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect, was just as good. So when I saw that there was a short mystery being released before the next novel, I had to read it.

I was glad it became available before Christmas, and while it is a theme, it is a book that can be read outside of the holiday season, too. That being said, here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.

My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?

This was a book I read in two days. It was really good. I had many guesses throughout and changed my mind on who I thought did it a few times.

I love the writing, the insights and hints given by the narrator, and the characters in general. I found it to be a satisfying mystery worth the read.

5 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – The Christmas Guest

Now that it is officially the Christmas season, I’d like to offer up a holiday read for you. If you are looking for a quick holiday mystery to read, let me offer up one to you. I stumbled on author Peter Swanson when “Eight Perfect Murders” came up as a suggestion on Goodreads. That led me to read a few of this other books (The Kind Worth Killing, The Kind Worth Saving, Nine Lives, etc…).

When I saw that he had a Christmas book, I added it to my “to read” list. It’s been on there since just after Christmas last year. Since all the decorations are up, I thought this would be a good book to read by the lights of the tree.

The book is a novella. It is something that I read in one sitting. It wasn’t as good as some of his other stuff, but there was still a big twist in there which helped boost my rating of the book.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.

Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.

The book was a nice read while I waited for the one I had on hold. It wasn’t like some of his other books, but the twist caught me off guard. Once that happens, the rest of the story all falls into place.

I would have given the book 3.5 stars, but the twist brought it up to 4 stars for me.

Book Recommendation – Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man

One of the hardest things about using my library’s Libby App is the occasional wait. This was the case recently as I had finished one book and was waiting for another. When this happens, I usually go to the other Library App (Hoopla). It is there that I will grab something short to read until my book becomes available.

I began to search for something like a short mystery when I stumbled on a title that screamed “Film noir.” The audio book was a little over 6 hours long. That’s three trips back and forth to work, so I borrowed it. Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man is a 1950’s detective story and didn’t take a lot of thought to get through.

As I read it, in my mind I pictured an old black and white detective movie. There were the occasional slang words (like “dollface”) that added to the “noir” feel. It wasn’t something that blew me away, but it wasn’t a bad little read.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Life as a secretary in New York just got tougher when Viviana Valentine’s boss winds up dead in this debut historical mystery, perfect for fans of Susan Elia MacNeal and Frances Brody.

New York City, 1950. Viviana Valentine is Girl Friday to the city’s top private investigator, Tommy Fortuna. The clients can be frustrating, and none more maddening than fabulously wealthy Tallmadge Blackstone, who demands Tommy tail his daughter, Tallulah, and find out why she won’t marry his business partner, a man forty years her senior. Sounds like an open-and-shut case for a P.I. known for busting up organized crime—but the next day, Viviana opens the office to find Tommy M.I.A. and a lifeless body on the floor.

The cops swoop in and Detective Jake Lawson issues a warrant for Tommy’s arrest. Desperate to clear Tommy’s name, Viviana takes on the Blackstone case herself. When she goes out for a night on the town with the heiress, she begins to learn the secrets behind Tallulah’s life and loves—and discovers that the body in the office is none other than Tallulah’s betrothed. Meanwhile, Lawson is itching to solve his murder case, and continues harassing Viviana for answers—until she’s the victim of an attack by a group of goons hooked up with a gangster named Santino Napolitano, a.k.a. Tino the Conderoga. Tino’s connected to the death of Tommy’s brother, and now he’s trying to get to Tommy through Viviana.

But Tommy’s still missing, and Tino is still out for blood. As Viviana digs into the dirty history of the Blackstone empire, she suddenly realizes the true danger at hand. Now, it’s up to her to find her missing boss and make sure she doesn’t turn up D.O.A.

I plays out just like an old movie and was enjoyable. If you are looking for a book you can get through quick, check it out.

3 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – One Puzzling Afternoon

I had this book in my “favorites” on the Hoopla app for a while. The title intrigued me. I “favorite” a book I want to read and when it is time for a new read, I search there. After finishing my prior books I clicked on the book to read it, but it kept giving me an error. After a few weeks, I typed the title back into the search bar and found it again. This time it had a different cover and it loaded without any trouble.

I remember when it loaded thinking, “Well, after all this, I hope it is good!” I am happy to say that it was a good read, but I had some trouble reading it. Before I get into that, here is the Goodreads synopsis:

A mystery she can’t remember. A friend she can’t forget.

I kept your secret Lucy. I’ve kept it for more than sixty years . . .

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother – who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community – she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.

When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .

Then Lucy goes missing.

2018. Edie is eighty-four and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There’s a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .

I enjoyed this book a lot. I mentioned early that I had trouble reading it. This was not because it was difficult to understand or follow. The main character, Edie, is forgetful. She is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia. This is where it got to me, and I suppose it was in a good way.

My grandmother had dementia. In the early stages, she would repeat a lot of things. She would have to stop mid-sentence because she couldn’t come up with the right words. She’d forget ingredients when cooking meals. I can still remember us having dinner at her house one day. She told us she thought she was “getting that Alzheimer’s.” My grandma deteriorated pretty quickly and eventually had to go to a nursing home for care.

The thing about this book was that you are getting the story told by Edie. She acknowledges that she is having trouble remembering thing. She relays the frustration involved in that. She is well aware of those “episodes” where she can’t remember something. She also remembers how it felt to come out of them. She deals with them the best that she can.

When she sees her friend from all those years ago, little things jog her memory. She knows that she went missing. She struggles to put the pieces together to get the whole story. She knows that her memory is fading and she needs to know what happened. Thus begins her quest to find answers.

As I listened to Edie throughout this book, I couldn’t help but compare her to my grandma. I wondered if her thoughts were the same thoughts that Edie was having. The struggle that Edie feels as she tries to remember was painful and sad to hear. It truly made me understand how terrible it must have been for her.

That being said, it was a good read. I wasn’t able to figure out the ending, and Critchley does a good job bringing it all together. My only beef with the story itself was that I wanted to know a bit more about what happened next. But that’s just my opinion.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – Local Girl Missing

This is another book that was suggested to me by my wife. Local Woman Missing was a good read. This is the first book by Mary Kubica I have read. If her others are as good as this, I will have to add them to my list.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

People don’t just disappear without a trace….

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find….

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

This was really one of those books I couldn’t stop reading, well, listening to. The audio book was very well done. It is read from the point of view of four main characters. One of them is one of the missing women.

The book bounces back and forth between the present and the events of 11 years prior. As the two time lines move forward, little by little, things come together. I found myself wondering how some of the characters played into the story . Also, what role they may have played in the disappearances of the woman/women.

The ending is one I should have seen coming, but never did. I loved that it stumped me! Definitely worth a read!

4.5 out of 5 stars