#28: Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell

Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell is a sweeping, literate western centered around the disparate group of lawmen and outlaws--and men who were both--that swirled around a battle that went down in history as the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Where Russell's novel gives a fresh perspective is through the thoughts and actions of the wives, lovers, and other women associated with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the others who loomed large in the tale of the gunfight.

But plenty of time is spent on the more well-known figures, including some tertiary ones, as the actual gunfight does not occur until several hundred pages into the telling.  A briefer, and more melancholy, section tells about the aftermath, and what happened to most of the main players.

A really good contemporary western not only for fans of the genre but for readers interested in history.  Recommended.

I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#27: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

During World War II, two French sisters take different paths during the Nazi occupation of France; one becomes a freedom fighter, and the other finds herself  gradually becoming a collaborator, in Kristin Hannah's epic historical novel The Nightingale.

One sister, more freewheeling and adventurous, becomes the Nightingale of the title, a partisan agent who joins the resistance as a messenger but eventually helps fallen Allied airmen escape occupied France.  The other sister, who has a more mild personality (that caused childhood conflicts between the siblings), tries to protect her shattered family by making one painful choice after the next.

Hannah's novel is a "homefront" style war novel, but standard elements of melodrama and action slowly give way to some pretty dramatic, disturbing scenes as the vestiges of humanity--personified in the Nazi Final Solution--are stripped away in the waning days of the war.

A solid read for those interested in a different take on a standard war story.  I checked this out on audiobook from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#26: City of Blood by Frédérique Molay

Thirty years ago, an artist symbolically buried his work as part of a modern art installation in a Parisian park; when the work is unearthed, a skeleton is found, sending Chief Nico Sirsky and the cops of the Criminal Investigation Division to work in Frédérique Molay's French thriller City of Blood.

Tidy, but television-sized police procedural moves at a fast clip as a fresh wave of similar murders--attributed to "The Butcher of Paris"--spurs the team on.  Sirsky also copes with the sudden onset of illness in his aging mother, and makes a deal with the heavens that wise cops don't make.

Glimpses of the French police and legal systems, as well as daily life, add interest.

I checked this out from Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly, as I think it was meant to be consumed.

This novel comes from Le French Book, a publishing house bringing English translations of what seem to be French beach reads to new audiences--and I will definitely look for more of these.

#25: The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato

A mega-pop star disappears in Chicago, setting off a chain of other disappearances and strange events in Catie Disabato's The Ghost Network.

I'm already recommending Disabato's debut work to people without really being able to explain what it is.  It's a very meta novel, presented as a non-fiction account written about a Lady Gaga-esque figure who, as the story unfolds, had more than a passing interest in various underground movements.  A trio of quasi-investigators, sort of a pan-sexual Scooby Doo team, tries to find out what happens--until one of them also disappears in a boating accident, and another loses several fingers.

When the writer of this nonfiction account also goes missing, the manuscript is purportedly passed on to Catie Disabato herself, who footnotes and provides other commentary.

Almost a story within a story within a story, but as cleverly woven into reality as anything I've read since Marisha Pessl's Night Film, which was one of my favorite reads of the last few years.  Readers will definitely find themselves taking to Google to figure out what is (surprisingly) real and what Disabato made up (and what is a little bit of both).

An original novel that I read rather quickly, on loan from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.  Recommended.

#24: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

A troubled young woman riding the London train glimpses something disturbing out of her window, sending her into a dramatic spiral in Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train.

This debut novel is frequently compared to Gone Girl, and in the way that they are both very cold-hearted thrillers I would agree; but I saw a lot more Rear Window.

Even more notable is the classic unreliable narrator, in this case an alcoholic protagonist with a failed marriage--but still stalking her ex-husband--who is prone to blackouts.

Two other point of views--flashbacks to a missing woman in the midst of a tumultuous affair, and the ex-husband's second wife--round out an interesting narrative.

A very tight thriller, frequently shocking.  I bought this in hardback and read it in a single day on a flight between Italy and the States--and saw several others on the plane doing the same.

#23: Uniform Justice by Donna Leon

A young man at a Venetian military academy appears to have hung himself; but veteran cop Guido Brunetti thinks differently, even as the boy's own family stands against him in Donna Leon's Uniform Justice.

Leon has written a very solid and well-acclaimed mystery series, set in Venice, a place which I had a chance to visit this summer for the first time (part of the reason I sought out a handful of these before I left).

Not only are the mysteries always compelling, but having spent part of the last several summers in Italy I find that her portrayal of Italian life and culture to be especially interesting.

Brunetti also has a very rich family life and cast of supporting characters, and the more of these I have read (this was my third) the more I have appreciated those elements.  Again this one has a slightly melancholy, but perhaps appropriate, conclusion.

I feel like I am the last mystery reader to have discovered Donna Leon, but nonetheless will continue to recommend the Brunetti series to friends, and will look for more.  I bought this one from a Goodwill and read while traveling in Italy.

#22: The Torso by Helene Tursten

When part of a corpse washes ashore, it's up to the dedicated cops of Goteborg, Sweden to hunt down the killer, a bloody trail that takes Irene Huss and her team to the seedy streets of Copenhagen in Helene Tursten's The Torso.

Strong, but grisly, police procedural for those looking for fresh names in the Scandinavian mystery market.  Tursten has created a complete, nuanced detective in Huss, and contrasts complex domestic scenes with vivid graphic violence.

Tursten truly pulls no punches as Huss crosses paths, and sometimes bullets, with organized crime lords, sex traffickers, and at least one serial killer; a killer who seems to be someone close to the investigation.

This is the second Tursten novel I have read recently and find her work to be right up there with some of my favorites in this genre, including Jo Nesbø, Arnaldur Indriðason, and Åsa Larsson.  Recommended for fans.

I read this in one sitting on a flight from Florence Italy to Indianapolis Indiana.

#21: Thirteen White Tulips by Frances Crane

A young doctor's wife gets into a compromising situation (1950s-speak) with a handsome rogue and concludes the only way out is murder; but when she arrives at his San Francisco home she finds him already dead, just the beginning of a very tangled plot in Frances Crane's Thirteen White Tulips.

I really enjoyed this breezy--exceedingly breezy-- tale, as the young wife enlists the help of private eye Pat Abbott, his very handy wife Jean (the narrator, who also weighs in on fashion and society), and their preternaturally smart dog Pancho, in uncovering the cause of the murder.

Crane tries for a Nick and Nora Charles vibe, and succeeds, with a real sense of the time, place, and culture.

I bought this with no prior knowledge from a crate of Penguin paperbacks (with green covers) from in front of a little used bookstore in Rome, Italy.  Crane apparently wrote a number of mysteries featuring Jean Abbott, and I would definitely look for more.

#20: Lady Killer by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

A young woman marries an older man for his money, and soon learns this was an unhappy mistake; but on a cruise, she is distracted by another unhappy couple who seem more murderously inclined in Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's Lady Killer.

I see Holding's name a lot, but had never sought out any of her books until I made a vow to read only women authors in 2015, and found myself hungry for a good noir.

The protagonist, Honey, finds herself wound tighter and tighter in a dark web leading to a tense, ultimately downbeat conclusion; but what I enjoyed about Holding's writing was not only the crackling noir elements but the artfully rendered take on marriages, relationships, and friendships between men and women. I will definitely look for more of her work.

I found this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#19: The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick

In a parallel world, a young man from a close family is accused of killing a noble beggar, and the entire family is exiled to a bleak, heartless place--our own world.

The Necessary Beggar is a fantasy/sci-fi novel with strong overtones of the immigrant experience in the United States, as this dramatically displaced family first appears in a refugee camp in a remote section of the United States, and tries to make their way from there.

Their trials and tribulations--compounded by the young man's suicide, and subsequent re-appearance as an unhappy ghost--are interesting throughout and certainly parallel contemporary experiences (minus the ghost).

Susan Palwick's novel is rewarding on many levels as a fantasy novel as well as a contemporary fable.

I found this book on a goodbye shelf at the local Hastings bookstore and read it in one day on my flight to Italy.

#18: Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon

When an American soldier from a nearby base dies under unusual circumstances, Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti starts an investigation that crosses social, political, and international lines in Donna Leon's Death in a Strange Country.

This is the second Leon novel I have read in this popular, long-running series, and I enjoyed it as much for the slices of Italian life shown as the mystery itself.  After spending several weeks in Italy over the years--though never visiting Venice--I think the philosophical side of life in Italy rings true.

But it's still a good mystery, with Brunetti getting into several near-miss scrapes before wrapping the story up--not neatly, but perhaps as neatly as anything gets from such a tangled web.

I found this in a Goodwill store in Frankfurt, Indiana and read it quickly.

#17: How to Get Into the Twin Palms by Karolina Waclawiak

A young Polish woman living on the margins of Los Angeles dreams of entering a Russian club across the street from her apartment, but learns to be careful what she wishes for in Karolina Waclawiak's How to Get into the Twin Palms.

Waclawiak's novel is a well-done contemporary immigrant story, alternating between humorous and heartbreaking as we follow her journey, which mirrors a mythological descent as aggressive wildfires prick at the edges of her existence.

Vivid in portraying both the lives of expat Eastern Europeans and the fringes of California society, How to Get into the Twin Palms is a worthwhile read.

I bought this from the independent publishing house Two Dollar Radio and read it quickly.

#16: W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton

Private Eye Kinsey Milhone gets involved in two seemingly unrelated cases; in the first, a former private eye colleague is shot and killed, and in the second a homeless man turns up with her name in his pocket.  How both these cases gradually, and then suddenly, become intertwined is the story behind W is for Wasted, Sue Grafton's latest in her long line of alphabet mysteries.

My wife, an English instructor and avid literary reader, has always listed Grafton as a guilty pleasure; I think I stopped reading around D is for Deadbeat but decided, in my year of reading only women authors, to give it another go with her latest.

This is a solid private eye novel with a very complex protagonist whose personality has evolved slowly over time.  Interestingly, although many years have passed in real time, the novels still take place in the late 80s, a seemingly far away pre-internet and cell phone era where real sleuthing by phone book and 3x5 card was preeminent. 

I listened to this on audiobook from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and will definitely dig into more of these.

#15: The Beige Man by Helene Tursten

The cops of Goteborg, Sweden, have their hands full when two joyriding kids, escaped from juvenile detention, run down a retired cop; near the crime scene, they find the corpse of a young girl.  How these cases become linked, much to the dismay of Irene Huss and her team, is the core of Helene Tursten's The Beige Man.

For those in a post-Dragon Tattoo funk, Tursten's novel is a welcome addition to the Scandinavian mystery canon.   

The Beige Man is a very tough, above average police procedural that focuses on organized crime and sex trafficking during a typically brutal Swedish winter.  There is an eclectic group of detectives much like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels; in fact, the lead detective, Huss, is reading an 87th Precinct book at one point.

All in all quite satisfying, with the title not explained until the very last page.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana, and will look for more of her writing.

#14: MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

A man-made plague has torn through the world, leaving an eclectic group--including former eco-cultists, scientists and their lab creations, and psychic pig/human hybrids--to forge a new path in MaddAddam, the end of Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic trilogy (begun with Oryx and Crake).

Not really a stand-alone novel, but certainly satisfying for those who enjoyed the first two (as this one reveals the colorful history of Adam One and Zeb, as well as other choice nuggets). 

For general readers, how the characters try to explain what happened to a young boy called Blackbeard, inadvertently starting a new world history/religion, is particularly interesting.

I am a Margaret Atwood fan, and though this trilogy does not stand up to The Handmaid's Tale or some of her other works, it is still worthwhile as a whole for apocalypse fiction fans.

I checked this out on audiobook from Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#13: The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel

A Copenhagen cop moves to a Missing Persons unit, and almost immediately is assigned the confounding case of a recently-deceased mentally disabled woman who was actually reported dead thirty years prior.  Meanwhile, a serial rapist stalks the cop's hometown of Hvalso, and she slowly begins to realize the cases are tied together in Sara Blaedel's The Forgotten Girls.

Blaedel is apparently well established in Denmark, but this is her first novel translated into English.  A good thing, as this is a solid, albeit grim, police procedural livened somewhat by the interpersonal relationships between the cop, her new partner, and her longtime best friend, an investigative journalist on the brink of her wedding.

The tough subject matter--which discusses the often poor history of mental health care, and a series of rapes--isn't helped by a downbeat, enigmatic ending.  But it is a good read for the discerning, and it's nice to have a fresh voice (to English readers) from the Scandinavian crime scene.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#12: Find Me by Laura Van Den Berg

A young woman with a hard-knock life finds herself surprisingly immune to a devastating disease sweeping the nation, so she volunteers to be studied at an eerie hospital in a snow-swept Kansas landscape.  When all is not what it seems at the hospital, she escapes on a phantasmagorical journey across a transformed America.

Laura Van Den Berg's Find Me is an unsettling dystopian thriller with a literary bent.  The protagonist's often creepy episodic adventures--later accompanied by a foster brother who wears a rubber mask and seems to display telepathic abilities--point her towards Florida, and a woman she thinks is her birth mother (spotted on a televised nature program).  Interesting throughout.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#11: Caught by Lisa Moore

A young guy, imprisoned on a pot bust, escapes and sets out across late-70s Canada in Lisa Moore's Caught.

This is a literate thriller, heavy on episodic encounters and colorful characterizations, but also ratchets up the tension as a dogged police detective (who is failing in his professional and personal lives) slowly tightens the noose on his pursuit.

I think this novel will appeal to readers who enjoy literary novels as well as those who enjoy more cerebral thrillers.  Moore's novel is well-written and compelling throughout.

 I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#10: A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon

Venetian cop Brunetti investigates the death of two fishermen, and finds a community closed against him, in Donna Leon's A Sea of Troubles.

Leon has written a long series of novels featuring this Italian policeman, but this is the first one I have come across.  Having traveled in Italy several times, although never visiting Venice despite several near misses, I thought I would give it a try.

This is a very solid mystery, with interesting characterizations that I'm sure would be richer having read more of the series (this is her tenth Brunetti novel).  I will definitely look for more of these.

This one I found at a Goodwill in Frankfort, Indiana, and read it quickly on vacation in Florida.

#9: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

A young girl is the only survivor of a family massacre at a rural farmhouse, and her fractured recollections of the night convict her older brother; years down a troubled road later, she begins to rethink her memories in Gillian Flynn's Dark Places.

After the success of Gone Girl, Flynn's earlier novels are getting another look.  This might be my favorite thus far, an inky-black story with often unpleasant characters, but fascinating throughout.  The story flashes back and forth in time, from multiple points of view, and covers topics from heavy metal Satanism to farm failures to contemporary cults of morbid celebrity.

Flynn is a very solid writer whose dark imaginings aren't for all tastes, though I find the novels worthwhile.

I borrowed this from a lending library in Florida where my in-laws snowbird, and read it all that week.

#8: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

A cop killer is stalking the mean streets of 70s Atlanta, setting two damaged police officers--one, a young woman from a family of hard-living cops, the other a rookie who joined the force after her husband was killed in Viet Nam--loose on the streets to catch a killer in Karin Slaughter's Cop Town.

This is a tough, fast-moving procedural with an interesting setting--a racist, sexist southern city where the cops solve problems with nightsticks and fists and due process is for sissies.  How these two women cope with male counterparts on both sides of the law, and problems in their own family, add to the storytelling as the two protagonists learn that the killer has fingerprints on both of their lives.

This is the first novel I read from Slaughter and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I checked this out from the Farmland Public Library in Farmland, Indiana.

#7: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

After a man-made virus sweeps across the planet, we follow the lives of two survivors--a young woman locked in a sex club, and an older woman hiding out in a spa--as they learn how to survive in a transformed world in Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood.

The Year of the Flood is the follow-up to Atwood's acclaimed Oryx and Crake, with the same setting and several of the same characters threaded throughout.  Of interest to readers of Oryx and Crake is the fact that the sequel solves the mystery shown in the closing pages of the first novel.

For general readers, however, I think it is still pretty interesting, with two new main characters, and how their paths have crossed over time, playing out in its story.  Overall not as emotionally resonant as Oryx and Crake, but worthwhile for fans.

If you read this book, I would suggest the audiobook version that I enjoyed (on loan from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond Indiana) as it featured three strong voices, and some musical interludes, a good production overall.

#6: Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee

A young girl lives with her sorceress mother in a fortified castle deep in a desert, and longs for excitement; but she finds more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon a unicorn skeleton in Tanith Lee's Black Unicorn.

I have always wanted to try Tanith Lee, and this year of reading only women authors seemed like a good time to start.  Thus I grabbed a lot of her various books from ebay at a goodbye price to try them out.

This is a funny, exciting high fantasy story mostly for young adults, with neat world-building and interesting twists and turns.  It hits all the right beats and is accessible to teen and adult readers.

This lot included the sequel, Gold Unicorn, which I can see myself tucking into before long.

#5: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

A Hollywood actor on the wane dies of a heart attack on stage during a performance of King Lear in Toronto; that very night, patient zero of a devastating flu virus lands at the airport.  How these events intersect, and reverberate for decades to come, is the crux of Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven.

This is a tremendous read with toes dipped in both the pulp and literary pools.  On the one hand, we have the life of the fading Hollywood actor, surrounded by a constellation of ex-wives, estranged kids, and fallen friendships; meanwhile, twenty-five years distant, the ragged survivors of the deadly flu criss-cross a devastated landscape bringing culture to small outposts with performances of Shakespeare and music.  When this band of artists cross a sociopathic cult leader they have to rely on more than monologues, with tragic results.

It seems as if every year I find a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading, and so far for 2015 it is Station Eleven.  A very strong outing and recommended.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#4: Five by Ursula Archer

Salzburg police come across a murdered woman with GPS coordinates crudely tattooed on her feet, and quickly find themselves in a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer in Ursula Archer's Five.

Archer's thriller is interesting in multiple ways.  First, it takes place in Austria, whose literature and geography I am not too familiar with;  secondly it involves Geocaching, where hobbyists search for caches based on GPS clues; and thirdly the main detective--going through a painful divorce, and hiding a previous trauma--is an interesting main character.

Five is a speedy read, with lots of interesting elements.  Its downsides--unusually grisly murders, and the whiff of an unlikely romance--do not detract much from the whole.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond Indiana and read it quickly.