A look at the month’s best reviewed books in crime, mystery, and thrillers.
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Lea Carpenter, Ilium
(Knopf)
“While Carpenter knows how to dish out the dread that a spy story needs, what makes Ilium intriguing are the characters … This is the sort of moral ambiguity that seems to fascinate Carpenter, the way living a double life and every day making your cover, that critical and deeply embedded lie, feels real to everyone around you. It’s also what makes Ilium such an unexpectedly moving novel.”
–Chris Bohjalian (New York Times)
Kate Brody, Rabbit Hole
(Soho)
“Teddy is a complicated heroine whose ill-advised decisions and self-destructive tendencies make her less than sympathetic, though also impossible to ignore. Her descent is swift and systematic, leading to sensationalist developments and voyeuristic turns. No one and nothing, she learns, should be trusted—including her own tangled memories. The dark corners of the internet feed a teacher’s investigation into her sister’s probable murder in the contemporary thriller Rabbit Hole.”
–Michelle Anne Schlinger (Foreword Reviews)
Maria Hummel, Goldenseal
(Counterpoint)
“The flawed narrative is in this case a relationship, and Hummel’s larger question is how — or whether — it can survive the expectations faced by women, both then and now … A novel about agency and friendship whose questions reverberate far beyond its two protagonists and their particular time and place. Haunting and tragic, it nevertheless lands on a hopeful note.”
–Ilana Masad (Los Angeles Times)
Elizabeth Gonzalez James, The Bullet Swallower
(Simon and Schuster)
“Mixes elements of western novels and magical realism to deliver a wildly entertaining story that spans generations and crosses borders in a riveting family saga … While great characterization and superb storytelling make this an enjoyable read, Gonzalez’s use of magical realism elements is what pushes this novel into must-read territory. The narrative reads like a western, but the magical elements enrich the story in unexpected ways.”
–Gabino Iglesias (Boston Globe)
Katia Lief, Invisible Woman
(Atlantic Monthly Press)
“Twists and turns, its escalating dangers alternating with fresh reveals, as momentum builds to a breaking point. Joni is compulsive, troubled, but sympathetic; Val is less central but exerts a force of her own. Characters develop quickly from disagreeable but benign to chilling and dangerous; some readers will find this atmospheric novel engaging and disturbing enough to lose sleep. A literary psychological thriller, cultural study, and heartbreaking story of friendship and loss, Joni’s unforgettable story involves layers of lies and the dangers of self-sublimation. Lief chills, entertains, and challenges.”
–Julia Kastner (Shelf Awareness)
