A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne

Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) was famous for being a socially connected, astute writer of both fiction and non-fiction. He was one of the best contemporary observers of the socially connected very rich from (mostly) old money. His favorite subject was the WASP-y rich who get arrested for murder or mayhem.  He was catty, biting, and wove delightful novels that were thinly disguised fiction which in reality were based on the very socialites with whom he wined and dined.

Dunne himself was well-connected; born into New England wealth, married to the socialite Ellen “Peaches,”  he evolved into a keen observer of behavior of the rich. His brother, screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, was married to the author Joan Didion. Dunne’s daughter Dominique (an actress in the film “Poltergeist”) was tragically murdered by her boyfriend.   In addition to writing novels, and for Vanity Fair magazine, he hosted a crime show on Court TV, covering the foibles of the rich and famous with disgust and gusto.

A Season in Purgatory is Dunne at his best. The novel was inspired by the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley and the subsequent involvement of Michael Skakel (nephew of Ethel Kennedy Skakel) as a suspect in the case. In the novel, protagonist Harrison Burns is enthralled with his wealthy prep school friend Constant Bradley, a JFK-like teen with a large Kennedy-like Irish-American brood, headed by the patriarch Gerald Bradley. Harrison is poor, but connected in society, and the Bradleys are fierce social climbers. When the girl-next-door Winifred Utley is bludgeoned to death, Constant is questioned, but nothing can be proved. Fast forward 20 years — Harrison is a true crime writer and Constant is running for president. Harrison knows a secret about Constant’s whereabouts the night of Winifred’s murder…and seeks to bring him down and to justice. But the Bradleys are powerful and connected and will stop at nothing to save Constant’s freedom and political future…

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While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

Jo hasn’t seen Eli in over thirty years. In the meantime, she has married a minister, had three daughters and for the most part forgotten the event that marked her 20′s and those last horrific days spent at the house on Lumley Street. Now Eli and his wife have moved not far from her, into the rural Massachusetts town just as she has begun a period of restlessness, searching,  and transition in her life. The last time Jo felt like this she up and left her first husband then ran away to reinvent herself in the communal house in Boston where she hid her past from the free-spirited occupants. Even calling herself by another name. Will her secrecy resurface now that she’s been reminded of all that freedom and creativity? Will reunion with Eli kindle a yearning to escape her staid family life?

Sue Miller has a balanced view of her characters. She shows us how people hurt each other, which is what people do, then asks, can this act be forgiven and if so, how? Sometimes, there is heartbreak either way. And how we live with this heartbreak and love and go forward is what she writes about in an unsentimental, believable and ultimately compassionate way.

In the three books that I’ve read so far, Miller rather boldly explores the role that sexuality has in our lives. Not that they are extremely explicit, but sex plays a large part in the plot and character development. Fans of Jodi Picoult or Nicci French may like Sue Miller. The wintery setting and dark emotional territory of this novel reminded me of Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag.

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The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

I hesitated before picking up this novel, because I was worried it would increase my skittishness about air travel. It didn’t. Instead, it made me leery of visiting small towns in New Hampshire!

Night Strangers is the story of former pilot Chip Linton. Chip has stopped flying after a freak crash that while not his fault, resulted in fatalities. In an effort to leave bad memories behind, Chip relocates with his wife, Emily, and their twin girls, Hallie and Garnet, to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This is their first mistake. The second is to buy an old house without investigating its history. Once moved in, Chip becomes obsessed with a room in the basement and begins to hear voices. The neighbors, while friendly, are strangely well preserved and strangely interested in the twins.

I love how Bohjalian makes you care about some characters — and how he makes you dislike and fear others. He creates a spooky atmosphere and makes three little words, “She deserves friends”, so frightening I felt chills run up and down my spine every time they were uttered. His choice to use the second person narrative for Chip was interesting and added to the tension.

Night Strangers is an interesting hybrid of horror story, ghost tale, and family drama. When I say horror I’m thinking of books like Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives with a soupcon of Stephen King and Henry James thrown in.

Readers are divided in their opinion of the ending. I won’t lie — I was taken aback, but that’s one of my expectations when reading horror. I also expect a story with engaging characters that keeps you feverishly turning pages while simultaneously scaring you out of your wits. I think Chris Bohjalian succeeds on all counts with this book and I highly recommend it.

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The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo

I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember and that means I read between 52-156 books a year depending on my level of busy-ness. First, I inhaled all the childhood favorites like the Little House, Black Stallion, and Trixie Belden series. Then I consumed the classics- my world view was forever shaped by Jane Eyre and 1984. In my early 20s my new obsession was the Catherine Cookson’s Mallen series and all the English royalty historical fiction. In my 30s and early 40s I loved the comfort, familiarity, and predictably of serial mysteries; I loved series with female protagonists as I felt like I was meeting an old friend with each book, I loved books set in places I had lived or traveled as I could walk familiar paths, I could relate to the homey mysteries as they made housekeeping and child care interesting- nothing like finding a dead body to bring spice into your life! But throughout all the periods I have liked general fiction and fantasies that gave me a window into new and different worlds- I loved being challenged with mind-opening ideas, being an armchair traveler, and having the opportunity to “walk in someone else’s shoes.”

As I approach 50, I have hit a reading rut-  it feels like “What has been is what will be,and has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ). I still read as much as ever, but I find myself frustrated with the “same ol’ same ol.” Everything feels derivative, like there is nothing new or fresh:

“If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child.” (Shakespeare’s Sonnet 59)

But then I started Talk-Funny Girl by Ronald Merullo; it could be described as a coming-of-age story with slight hints of Ellen Foster, but the setting, rural New England, was fresh for me. Talk-Funny Girl brought  shades of Stephen King’s worlds of darkness and oddity but with incredible resilience bred from isolation and independence. Merullo uses a dialect that is completely brand new to me- one that is intriguing and unusual- and brings his story to life with imagery that puts me in a new and different place. Merullo’s protagonist, Marjorie, tells her story from her future so I had confidence that she survived her horrific home life, but the pacing and suspense of the story kept me on the edge of my seat and made me worry that she was an unreliable narrator. The story was also intriguing in its examination of Marjorie’s parents’  twisted backwoods’ religion with the hint of a murder mystery thrown in; Talk-Funny Girl felt like a realistic window into how poisoned a soul can become by extreme poverty and lack of education.

I was so happy to stumble upon this book and am thrilled to recommend it to my peers who are becoming as jaded as I!

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The Call by Yannick Murphy

This novel has an odd cover–who wants to read about cows?  The first page is unexpected, too, being set up in the form of a veterinarian’s record of his working day, e.g.,  Call, Action, Results, and the more unusual headings: Thoughts on drive home while passing red and gold leaves on maple trees, What children said to me when I got home, What the wife cooked for dinner, etc.  Not at all sure I wanted to read this book, I gave it twenty pages to convince me to invest my time.

Over the next few days, I looked forward with relish to sitting down, laughing, making myself at home in the story, and anxiously watching to see how the plotlines were going to play out. The vet’s wife, a creative cook, can be downright cranky, an amazing mother, as well as sexy. In other words, she’s real. The vet, who is called out any day at any time to tend to a sheep, a cow, a horse, has an wry sense of humor and sees spaceships in the Vermont sky on his drive home from nocturnal calls. Their three children are bright and adorable, just like ours. Then a hunting accident changes the family’s focus, as emergencies always do, and when that crisis is past, another character shows up and thickens the plot, testing the vet’s notion of family.

The whole story is told through the vet’s notes, encompassing his musings, observations, conversations, and reactions.  You will feel a kinship with him. My call is 4 stars out of 5.

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Don’t Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon

Fifteen years ago, 12-year-old Lisa disappeared into the woods behind her house…or did she?

Lisa and her brother grew up believing that fairies were responsible for the disappearance of an entire town in the woods behind their house.  In the months before she vanishes, Lisa becomes more and more convinced that the fairies have returned, but it is clear that these fairies are more sinister than magical.  The night she disappears, she tells her brother that she is going to meet the King of the Fairies, and is never heard from again.

Fifteen years later, Lisa’s brother, Sam, is suddenly thrust back to the sinister world of the fairies when he receives a mysterious phone call.  He and his girlfriend Pheobe set out to find Lisa, and with each discovery they unravel the unbelievable truth about what happened, as well as placing themselves in danger.

Alternating between Lisa’s narration of the summer she disappeared and Phoebe’s narration of the present day, Don’t Breathe a Word is written like a terrific suspense film.   Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger, creepy characters lurk in the dark, and nothing is as it seems.  I found this book so compelling that I could not put it down until I found out the truth about Lisa and the fate of Sam and Pheobe.

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Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder has done it again in creating a fast-paced book that won’t let you put it down until you know the outcome. Ex-government agent Nick Heller has returned to Boston and a private investigating practice when his good friend, Marshall Marcus calls him. Nick will never turn down a request from a friend in need and Marcus is seriously in need. His daughter Alexa, once the victim of an unsuccessful kidnapping, has disappeared. Nick answers the call knowing he may have to call on an old FBI flame, Diana Madigan. No one has heard from Alexa or her kidnappers and Taylor Armstrong , the friend she was with when she disappeared, claims to know nothing. Something doesn’t add up and Nick strongly suspects that Taylor, the wayward daughter of a US Senator, knows more than she is saying. Nick, who is trying to find out what the kidnappers want, also thinks that Marcus isn’t telling him everything that could assist him in tracking Alexa.

I guarantee you that Finder is improving with each successful novel. I highly recommend Buried  Secrets by Joseph Finder!

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