Today is National Book Lover’s Day! Incidentally, it is totally a coincidence that I have a couple books to share with you. With all that’s going on this way, I haven’t really planned that much ahead. I recently finished two books that I really enjoyed and wanted to share with the other book lovers who follow my blog and often recommend books to me.
Nine Lives – Peter Swanson
Nine Lives is the second book I have read by Peter Swanson. The First was Eight Perfect Murders. I wrote about that one here:
I really enjoyed this book. Much like Eight Perfect Murders, the basic idea is what interested me. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke – until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor.
FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next….
The book itself was actually very good. I want to say so much about the story, but every thing I want to mention would be a spoiler, so I will just leave you with the above synopsis and hope that it peaked your interest as much as it did mine.
No Rest For The Dead – Various Authors
This book is one I got for one reason and one reason only – the amount of authors involved. Take a look at the cover. There are some really big authors involved in this book. Each wrote a chapter or two for the story.
Before I even opened it, I wondered just how this would flow. Then I began to wonder if they all got together in a room to decide the story line and who would write what. I mean, really, it is hard to write one entire book, but at least if you are in total control of it – you know where you are going with it. Did they write the ending first? Did each author read the pervious one’s chapter and write from there? I still don’t know.
What I can tell you was that it flowed pretty well. I never got the sense that a different author was writing this chapter or anything like that. As a bonus, the story was actually one that came together nicely.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
When Christopher Thomas, a curator at San Francisco’s Museum of Fine Arts, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in Berlin, his wife Rosemary Thomas is the prime suspect. Long suffering under Christopher’s unfaithful ways, Rosemary is tried, convicted and executed.
Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, becomes convinced that the wrong person was put to death. Along with financier Tony Olsen, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth about what happened that fateful evening.
Could it have been the ne’er do well brother Peter Hausen, interested in his sister’s trust fund having got through his own; the curatorial assistant Justine Olengard, used and betrayed by Christopher; the artist Belle who turned down his advances only to see her career suffer a setback; or someone else all together? No Rest for the Dead is a thrilling, page-turning accomplishment that only the very best thriller writers could achieve.
Happy National Book Lover’s Day!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 