1) Cemetery Road-by Greg Iles. Iles is one of my very favorite mystery authors, so I was at the bookstore the day this came out. It didn't disappoint!
The first paragraph of the book sums it up:
In the story Marshall McEwan, a journalist, returned to his hometown, Bienville, Mississippi, to help with his terminally ill father. Marshall never wanted to return there for a variety of reasons, including that he felt that his father had always blamed him for his brother's death and that his lover from years before had stayed there and married his best friend. Shortly after his return one of his old friends and mentor was found dead under suspicious circumstances."I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out to hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who saved my live, or win a Pulitzer Prize for telling a lie."
The old Southern town held many secrets and as Marshall begins to investigate, the secrets began to emerge.
Another great read by Iles.
2) The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough. I'm not sure that any review of this book is necessary, but I wanted to add my impressions after reading it again after forty-two years (it came out in 1977).
What struck me the most is that usually most people's impression when they hear the name of the book remember it as a great love story between a priest and a younger woman. Reading it this time, I was struck with how little that love story was a part of the whole book. It really is a story of three generations of the Cleary family and their struggles on the ranch in Australia. The love story of Meggie and Fr. Ralph is like a thin silk thread running through the book.
I was also struck by how really good the book is. It certainly stands the test of time. Excellent writing. Each chapter is centered around one of the main characters as the book goes from 1915 to 1969.
3) Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. This was a fascinating book. It is a memoir about identity, love, ethics and forgiveness.
Dani was raised as an Orthodox Jew. She was blonde haired and blue eyed and had been questioned about her Jewishness every once in awhile, but she did not have any reason to question her appearance. She had grown up very close to her father, practicing the faith religiously with him.
Years later after her parents were dead and Dani was fifty-four years old, Dani's husband decided to do a DNA test and casually asked her if she wanted to order one also. She said that she would, even though her half-sister had done one several years before. Then pretty much forgot about it. Until the results arrived. Dani learned that her father was not her biological father. She began researching the family history and eventually found that she had been conceived by artificial insemination. Of course, Dani then felt as if her entire life had been based on a lie...the ancestors in all the pictures were not her family.
Eventually, Dani was able to learn who her biological father, contacted him and began a tenuous relationship with him and his family.
I found the book so fascinating as Dani worked through the mysteries of her family and the clues that had been forgotten in the back of her mind.
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