An author who is a highly experienced ghostwriter is so hard up for money that she takes a ghostwriting job with her father, a successful horror writer from whom she has been estranged for many years. For most of his life, he's carried around a mystery. Now, he says, he wants to finally come clean as he nears the end of his life.

Vincent Taylor has requested that Olivia, in particular, be his ghostwriter. He wants her to know the truth as to whether he really did kill his brother and sister when he was a teenager. But Olivia does not simply take his word for it. Plus, she finds that his own writings on this subject are unintelligible. So she really has her work cut out for her putting together all the pieces to this puzzle.

I wonder if this really is the job of a ghostwriter– –searching for the truth. I always thought a ghostwriter was at the mercy of his/her subject and looked no further for the truth of the matter.

If you think that, because this book is written by Julie Clark, it will be thrilling, please lower your expectations. This book is a mystery but not a thriller.

RED NOTICE is nonfiction, and I know that nonfiction can often be dull. But please believe that this isn't. You need to read this. RED NOTICE is a book that everyone should read.

This is Bill Browder's story of his experiences with Russia since the Soviet Union. He invested in Russia as CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and became the country's largest foreign investor. Then the Russians charged him with stealing and tax evasion, all lies, all made up so that he would stop accusing Russian oligarchs of doing exactly that and proving it. He had to leave Russia for his own safety and soon realized that anyone he worked with had to get out, too. What he didn't know at first was that even his lawyer was not safe there, even the lawyer who worked with his lawyer.

Eventually, Browder was able to convince his lawyer to leave Russia. But Sergei Magnitsky, Browder's other lawyer, would not. He believed too strongly in the law, that the truth would eventually win. But this was Russia, is Russia. Magnitsky would not lie, and the Russians arrested, tortured, and murdered him as a result.

This is also Browder's story of convincing other countries to enact laws, in the name of Magnitsky, to sanction these human rights abusers. Browder has devoted most of his life to this since Magnitsky's death. This is how he could see that Magnitsky's murderers are made to pay.

Everyone should read this so we remember the evil of Russia. As you read RED NOTICE, remember the news stories he speaks of and how they were presented to us at the time. For example, remember the news story of Vladimir Putin's no longer allowing Americans to adopt Russian orphans. That was his way of punishing Americans for enacting the Magnitsky Act. Putin says he did this for the orphans' safety, and that's how the media presented the story, as if we should take Putin at his word.

Browder wrote RED NOTICE 10 years ago. He followed up with another book, FREEZING ORDER, more recently, in 2022. Believe me, you'll want to read it when you finish RED NOTICE.

I read FREEZING ORDER first because I won it. It interested me so much I was sorry I hadn't read RED NOTICE first. And now that I've read it, I want to reread FREEZING ORDER. It will be the only book I've reread since THE GATEWAY TO STORYLAND when I was five.

Don't get me wrong--THE FOUNDLING is a good book, just not for me. So my criticism of it should not be taken as negative so much as the reasons it isn't for me.

The setting is Pennsylvania, 1927 and 1928. Mary was raised in a Catholic orphanage. Now she is secretary for a woman she greatly admires, Dr. Vogel, who runs the Nettleston State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Just from the name of that institution, you should be able to predict what this book is about. And I found the story predictable throughout.

Yes, institutions with names like that really did exist at that time. The idea was, institutionalize feebleminded women until they can no longer get pregnant, ensuring they do not produce feebleminded children to be dependent on taxpayers.

Two of the many problems with that, as Mary found: many if not most of the institutionalized women were not feebleminded, and the institution was worse than a prison. A resident of Nettleston State Village was serving a life sentence when she had done nothing wrong or had already served her prison sentence. Mary took too long to figure out what should have been obvious to her during her first week on the job. She made the book infuriating.

As with all historical fiction I read, I wondered throughout THE FOUNDLING how accurate it was, how much was based on Ann Leary's imagination and how much was based on her research. I would have liked Leary's "Author's Note" to have expanded on this more than it did.

Although Leary did not intentionally write THE FOUNDLING as a young adult novel, that is the way it came across to me. The writing style is young adult. I'm not a young adult and, with rare exceptions, don't appreciate young adult books. I would have liked this book if it had been written from an adult point of view, perhaps from Mary's journalist boyfriend.

Ruta Sepetys writes young adult historical fiction. I normally do not care for YA, but I've found that her books work well as crossovers to adult fiction. OUT OF THE EASY, however, although excellent for young adults, does not come across to me as adult.

Josie is 17 years old in 1950 New Orleans, "the easy." As the daughter of a dishonest prostitute, she has been living on her own for years now in a city where she does not belong. She wants out.

So she dreams of going away to college in Massachusetts, and she does everything she can to make it really happen. Most of OUT OF THE EASY is about how she does that.

It's a storyline for young adults. And the situations Josie finds herself in would appeal to young adults. This adult found them predictable, sometimes even silly.

Blake Crouch is the only science-fiction writer I will read with any regularity. That is because his plots and subject matter are never ridiculous. That is more true of UPGRADE than of any of his other books that I've read. He succeeds in making his main character and narrator sound like a scientist when he talks about genealogy and DNA.

Logan lives happily with his wife and child and never wishes for more. He is a scientist but now works as a special agent for the Gene Protection Agency. It is his job to find and arrest anyone who tries to modify genes.

On one of Logan's raids of a "dark gene lab," he is impaled with a virus that will upgrade his own genes and make him an almost superhuman. He discovers that this was a deliberate plan of his previously-thought-dead mother, also a scientist but far more brilliant than he is.

What follows is Logan's adventures as he attempts to prevent his mother and then his sister from infecting the world with this virus. They feel that the human species can only be saved by this upgrade. But Logan knows that he can't stand by and watch millions die from the virus's negative effects.

This all happens in the 21st century, only a few years from now. Crouch could be implying that this is something we need to worry about but warns that "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature" (which you may remember if you're old enough). He could also be saying that our intelligence doesn't need to be upgraded. Maybe his final letter to his wife and daughter explains it.

Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN. Although I normally prefer thrillers, which Jewell excels at writing and which I mistakenly thought this was, THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN is riveting and had me glued to the pages as much as any thriller.

The house is beautiful in a beautiful neighborhood with other beautiful houses. But Lorelei loves things: bright things, colorful things, potentially useful things, things in bulk, all sorts of things. And all are things she just can't throw out.

Lorelei and Colin have four kids who grow up in this house of more and more things that their mother can't throw out. Each of their lives is examined over the years, and we see how the house they grew up in and their mother's madness affected them and their decisions.

I highly recommend this book.

If you like locked-room mysteries, THE HUNTING PARTY should interest you. The characters are not exactly in a locked room, but they're all stuck on the remote grounds of a hunting lodge where a snowstorm prevents anyone from getting in or out. You will know from the beginning that someone is murdered. But you won't know who that is or who is the murderer, except that each is someone stuck at the lodging grounds. So the whole book is pretty much character study, as each gives first-person accounts, flashbacks, of what led to the murder.

This format usually bores me. That's why I've never been an Agatha Christie lover.

Yes, I was late getting to CLARK AND DIVISION, and anything I say about it has probably been said already. But did I like it? Yes--mostly.

CLARK AND DIVISION is a historical mystery. In my opinion, that makes it better than most historical fiction. Plus, apparently, Naomi Hirahara based her characters on real people and their stories. And her mystery was based on a real case. That's why I liked it.

it is 1944. A Japanese American family was finally allowed to leave the concentration camp where they had been incarcerated in California. They are now in Chicago and soon learn that the eldest daughter, Rose, who went to Chicago ahead of her parents and sister, is dead, run over by a subway. Her 20-year-old sister, Aki, investigates this "accident" throughout the book. Was this really an accident? Aki doubts it. But was the official finding, that Rose committed suicide, correct? Aki is sure that's not right. Could someone have pushed Rose? That's the mystery.

Even more than the mystery, though, CLARK AND DIVISION is about the Japanese American experience postdetainment. This historical fiction is the reason, I'm sure, the book won so many awards.

H IS FOR HAWK is Helen Macdonald's book about herself and her hawk, a goshawk. This is why I wanted to read it. I didn't realize that it is also about her mourning over the death of her father and about T.H. White, writer of, among other well-known books, THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING and THE SWORD IN THE STONE. I enjoyed Macdonald's wonderful descriptions of her goshawk, Mabel, and her need for Mabel upon her father's death. But I could have done without all her critique of T.H. White's training of his own goshawk, which he described in THE GOSHAWK.

White's training of his goshawk was mostly failure. It was difficult to read Macdonald's retelling of the failures because White unknowingly tortured his goshawk. Plus, it sounded to me like he was full of psychological problems. H IS FOR HAWK devotes too much time and space to White.

I found this book depressing. At least, unlike most books about animals, Macdonald doesn't end H IS FOR HAWK with death.

Leif Enger wrote two of the best books I ever read: PEACE LIKE A RIVER and VIRGIL WANDER. So I expected that I CHEERFULLY REFUSE would be another winner. But I didn't get it.

This book confused me. It's mostly doom and gloom in the near future. But it felt like Enger was trying to make a point; I just could not tell what the point was. At the same time, though, I was enjoying the way he writes, his sly humor and his remarks that were so like those in his books I loved.

I CHEERFULLY REFUSE starts out in Minnesota and ends up in Canada by way of Lake Superior. The main character, Rainy, meets bad guys all along the way but meets good guys in Canada.

Is that a message? If so, Enger would be insulting most of his readers, and I doubt he would do that. I'm just searching for a point.

Another possible point could be his "astronauts." These were the bad guys who made life hell for everyone else because they had most of the money and, therefore, all of the power. Nowadays I hear lots of complaints about the dangerous oligarchy we live in. Could that be what this is, a complaint about oligarchy?

Whatever the point is with I CHEERFULLY REFUSE, I did enjoy Enger's sentences, i.e., I love the way he writes. He's working on another book, and I know I'll want to read it.

No surprise, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES is an outstanding novel from John Boyne. This book is another example of why he is one of my go-to authors. Plus, although this is a standalone novel, if you read Boyne's THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, you should notice and may like meeting again some characters the two books have in common.

This is Gretel's story. She is 91 years old. She tells of her life in a luxury "flat" in 2022 London with her neighbors: Heidi across the hall and Alex and Madelyn and their little boy Henry downstairs. Every other chapter Gretel tells of her past.

She was born in Germany. Her unnamed father was an officer in the German army and was, in large part, responsible for the atrocities during the Holocoaust. Gretel and her family lived quite a nice life. But at the end of the war, when she was 12 years old, her father and brother were gone, and she and her mother escaped to France under assumed names.

Gretel spends the rest of her life feeling guilty and hiding her past.

In 2022 London, she befriends young Henry and does her best to prevent his evil father from ruining his life or even killing him. Because of Gretel's ongoing guilt, she is not afraid to do what she knows will hurt her.

I've read several of Boyne's books. All, including this one, are unputdownable.

I need to write this review well enough that it convinces you to read ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES. You really do want to. I read quite often, but I haven't read such a good book in at least a year, maybe five years.

This book has already been summarized so often, I only say that Inti (female) leads a team to reintroduce wolves into the Highlands in Scottland. Of course they deal with resistance. Eventually, it does appear that a wolf has killed two people.

Two other characters who play major roles are Inti's psychologically-troubled twin sister, Aggie, and Dunkin, the chief of police. Turns out, the book is not only about wolves. There are also mysteries about what happened to Aggie and whether Dunkin or a wolf killed a man.

Although I didn't read ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES in one sitting, as so many reviewers claim, I did have to force myself not to.

The writing style of the first 100 or so pages of WEST WITH GIRAFFES reads, I think, like a young adult novel, which I wouldn't normally care for. But I knew that this historical fiction is based on an actual story: in 1938 two giraffes really did live through a hurricane on board a ship to arrive at the coast of New York, where they were then put in crates and transported by truck all the way across the country to the San Diego Zoo. So I kept reading.

This book is a fictionalized story of their 12-day journey with their zookeeper (whose name has been changed to Riley Jones for this story) and two others who are pure fiction, the 17-year-old driver, Woody Nickel, a Dust Bowl orphan from the Texas Panhandle, and Augusta "Red," the redheaded photographer who follows the giraffes' journey. Together, including the giraffes, they deal with one adventure after another along their way. And it is these adventures that kept me reading until late at night. The book hooked me in, after all.

One problem I have with historical fiction is my need to know what is fiction and what is fact. Sometimes the authors include a note with the book to explain which parts they made up. Most often, they don't do that to my satisfaction, and that is the case with WEST WITH GIRAFFES. At least nowadays we have the Internet, so we can look it up. So far, I know that the zookeeper's name was really Charlie Smith.

A Woman of No Importance is a biography of Virginia Hall, a heroic World War II spy who, again and again, was treated as unimportant because she was just a woman. Although Sonia Purnell put together honest research for this book, the story of Hall's life is almost unbelievable. How could one person accomplish so much in such dire circumstances and keep going back for more?

At first I was put off by this book because it is another World War II story, and I'm tired of them. If you are the same, let this book be the exception. While I can't say I agree with The New York Times that "This book is as riveting as any thriller," I did find it more than interesting, and I do recommend it.

More people should know this story. That's why I am glad to read that a movie based on this book is in development.

Ireland seems to have a disproportionate share of great writers. I joke that they must have superior English and writing classes over there because several of my favorite authors are Irish. And now I just found another.

Niall Williams has written other books before, but Time of the Child, his latest, is my first. The story is about the people who live in a small town in Ireland during the 1960s. Apparently, Williams wrote an earlier book about this same town, so this is a return.

In Time of the Child, the town's doctor, a widower, lives with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. When they take in a baby that someone finds, Ronnie ends up falling in love with the child. But neither Ireland nor the Catholic Church there will allow a single mother to adopt a child. So what to do?

Normally, I dislike writing style that goes on and on about details that do not seem to push the story forward. Yet Williams does that, and I love it. And his sentences are long, too. But none of this feels unnecessary.

So you may want to read an excerpt before you buy Time of the Child. But, truly, this is a five-star read.

Most reviews will tell you that REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES is a good book. And it is. After all the hype about it, though, I was a little disappointed.

As you probably already know, a woman, Tova, who mops floors every night at an aquarium talks to the fish. And she finds that the remarkably bright octopus there reacts to her greetings. It really is quite a sweet story. But great literature it is not.

Too much irritated me, especially the parts that had to do with Cameron, the 30-year-old man who comes to town. Tova refers to him as a boy. Plus, although the book says over and over that he is remarkably smart, he sure doesn't act like it.

Again, the story is so sweet. I've read stories this sweet before. So I found every bit of it to be predictable, lots of predictable coincidences.

I recommend this book for a teenager. That's when I would have loved it.

Although THE PUSH is an excellent novel you'll want to keep reading, that will be in spite of its subject matter. It is a woman's first-person account of her marriage to her college sweetheart and their evil child. It is written as if it is an explanation she has written for her ex-husband. It is a sad book, and it may even be depressing.

This book is too much like WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN. If you haven't read that book, it, also, is about an evil child. As with that book, I found THE PUSH to be maddening and frustrating in addition to sad and depressing.

Even so, you will probably find, as I did, until you start reading another book, you won't be able to stop thinking about this one.

UNDER THE HARROW was such a disappointment!

It looks like a short book, but it is longer than it needs to be. Parts 1 and 2 are about the overwhelming grief of a woman whose sister has been murdered. Her grief seems to have taken over her senses. These two parts are full of paragraphs describing scenery. They add nothing to the story and seem to be padding to make the book longer.

I struggled through Parts 1 and 2 and considered many times not finishing the book.

Part 3 is a little better. At least there were fewer useless paragraphs.

UNDER THE HARROW is Flynn Berry's first book. Luckily, I know she gets better. Try one of her later books.

Most reviews of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY say that it's funny. That's why it took me so long to read it. If you, like me, think that books that are described as funny are usually silly or corny or just plain dumb, you should know that LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY is an exception.

So what made me want to read LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY if I thought it would be silly or corny or dumb? Bonnie Garmus's husband was on "Jeopardy" for a few days. Garmus is the author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, and she has an exceptionally smart husband.

Garmus's main character, Elizabeth, is another smart person, a chemist in southern California during the 1950s and 1960s. She fought so much against the prevailing norms of that time, when women had to fight to be recognized in any field but wife and mother, she was finally fired from her job at a chemical research company.

Elizabeth then became, instead, an afternoon television star. It was supposed to be a cooking show, but she also, at the same time, taught lessons in chemistry. She fought for this, and her show became wildly popular.

A blurb on the cover of this book calls it "darkly funny." I think that's accurate. It certainly is not silly or corny or dumb.

The NEW YORK TIMES calls LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY a notable book. This is one of the few times I agree with them.

THE PRINCESS OF LAS VEGAS confirms, once again, why Chris Bohjalian is one of my go–to authors. No two books of his are alike, yet he writes consistently dramatic and suspenseful novels.

First we have the "princess," Crissy, a Las Vegas entertainer who impersonates Princess Diana. But, although she's the title character, Crissy is not the only star. There are also her sister Betsy and Betsy's daughter, Marisa (who you will love).

Although Crissy and Betsy are not twins, they look alike, and they both look just like Princess Diana. These facts are very important to this story.

Crissy has been living in Las Vegas for years; Betsy has been living where they grew up, Vermont. But when her boyfriend moves to Las Vegas for a job, Betsy and her daughter follow. This is her first mistake.

In Las Vegas Betsy meets her boyfriend's coworkers. All carry guns. And she continues to make errors in judgment. Thank goodness she has Marisa.

Marisa is a super-intelligent 13-year-old who grew up in the foster system and was adopted by Betsy only recently. Marisa's italicized thoughts precede each chapter. Before the end of the book, she will impress you.

I highly recommend THE PRINCESS OF LAS VEGAS. In spite of my best intentions, I left a lot undone so I could read it.