Venetian Lessons in Love by Jenna Lo Bianco

 

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Venetian Lessons in Love by Jenna Lo Bianco is like a sumptuous Italian opera: fabulous settings, tragic heroine, evil villain and mysterious but gorgeous hero. Lucia has been known to all as l’Orfana since an intrusive photographer snapped a picture of her as an eleven year old child at the scene of the horrific accident which took the lives of her parents, along with others.

Now, twenty years later, Lucia is running what was her parents’ Italian language school from her inherited palazzo on the canal in Venice with the assistance of her two trusted friends, Mariela and Francesco. All is well in Lucia’s safe, secluded though lonely life until a blow is delivered which threatens to upset her fragile sense of well being.

A romantic, melodramatic story follows: Venice is an enchanting backdrop; Lucia is beautiful, vulnerable and, at times, maddeningly stubborn in her fear and mistrust of her handsome neighbour, Alex, with his intriguing, Australian-accented Italian.

This is a book for lovers of romantic fiction and, of course, Italy. Jenna Lo Bianco has written two previous books: The Italian Marriage and Love & Rome.

Published by Pan Macmillan.

To Die For by David Baldacci

 

Travis Devine is a Homeland Security agent. Ellen Saxby is an FBI agent. Betsy Odom is a twelve year old girl whose parents have died. Danny Glass is a criminal kingpin. Devine has been assigned to accompany Saxby and Betsy to a court hearing at which Glass is petitioning to adopt Betsy who is his niece.

Devine soon becomes aware that this assignment is going to be loaded with danger when a man who has offered to sell him information about the deceased Odoms is murdered.  Devine is already on the alert for a mysterious stranger, ‘The Girl on the Train’, who is obviously tracking him with the intention of killing him.

This is fast moving, thrill-a-minute action. Danny Glass is of special interest to the FBI, while Devine uncovers a huge home grown terrorism threat. There are some very bad people and some very good people and the trick is to find out who falls into which camp.

Travis Devine is one of my favourite recurring Baldacci characters. He is noble and heroic, and a symbol of hope. Just what the doctor ordered for gloomy old 2024!

Published by Pan Macmillan

The Ghosts of August by Peter Watt

 

Peter Watt’s historical novel, The Ghosts of August, covers the years from 1914 to 1916. The settings are Sydney, Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, France, Germany and the Middle East.

David and Ben Steele, brothers from a wealthy Sydney family, join the Australian army to fight in the First World War. David is sent to France and Ben to the Middle East. David was in Germany visiting a friend before the War began and Ben was in Rabaul pursuing the family’s interests there. Peter Watt is one of those writers in the Michener mould who entertain while enlightening, and for me, having lived in Papua New Guinea but never having been to Rabaul, I was especially interested in that part of the book.

The fighting scenes in the two theatres of war, France and the Middle East, are graphic and at the same time gripping. War in any form, of course, is horrible, disgusting, terrifying, but hand to hand close combat between young men who in other circumstances would have no animosity towards each other is dehumanising as well as heartbreaking. That is how a lot of that war was fought and Peter Watt is unflinching in his representation of it.

The perfect balance for the horrifying reality of the brothers’ experiences in fighting for their country is the telling of the individual stories of their personal lives as well as those of their family and friends and the women they loved. There is equal depth and power in all aspects of the book.

This quote stayed with me: “It was ironic to think that the Kaiser was a cousin of the British King and Russian Czar. This was truly a war between royal European families that was dragging millions of men to their deaths…”

Well done, Mr Watt.

Published by Pan Macmillan

Love Lay Down Beside Me and We Wept by Helen Murray Taylor

 

This is a memoir as moving, as powerful and as beautifully written as the best novel. Helen Murray Taylor was a brilliant student who became a doctor working punishingly long hours in a hospital, and from there she went on to work in medical research.

Helen had a loving husband, Mark, as well as a loving family and she adored her nieces and nephews. When Helen and Mark decided it was time to have a baby of their own they did not envisage the problems they were going to encounter.

Helen’s honesty is heartbreaking. She had reached all of her academic goals with ease, she loved playing sport and she was in a loving relationship, but the one thing she now wanted was becoming harder to reach. She goes on to tell of the traumatic consequences she suffered and she does it so clearly, even saying she checked some of her facts with Mark while writing this memoir, that she was able to project her emotions off the page directly on to me, as she will to any reader. I  wanted to take her under my wing but the best part of this is she always had the love of her husband, family and friends throughout her painful and at times rather terrifying struggle.

Although I want to talk about Helen’s story in detail I have been deliberately vague here because it is her story to tell and I want everyone to be as captured by it as I have been. I do want to mention, though, Helen’s cat. Animals know when people need them. They are great givers of comfort and sympathy.

I love psychological studies and this is one of the best I have read. Helen wants to pursue writing and I am sure she will be a wonderful novelist, if that is the path she wants to take.

Published by Unbound.

The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern

 The Last Trace is a story with many components. Lachy has a secret: if he unthinkingly drinks alcohol too quickly he experiences black holes in his memory. It is more of an embarrassment than anything else until it begins to cause problems in his recent and further back past. Lachy’s fourteen year old son, Jai, has come to live with him in country New South Wales and Lachy has taken a year’s leave of absence from his job of getting water to drought-stricken areas around the world. Jai has been ‘sin binned’ by his mother and stepfather who believe he needs to spend some time away from his Sydney school mates. 

It’s also the story of a family over three generations and two countries. Lachy’s mother, Gloria, came as a young woman to Australia from her home in America. Her generation’s part of the book is told by her sister, Elizabeth, in 1968, in America, where the family is ruled over by their ultra-religious father.

Lachy’s sister, Sheridan, is married to his best friend, Nick, they have two daughters and love Kai as much as their girls. They are all gathered together at Mimosa Hideout, Sheridan and Lachy’s family’s retreat, for Easter when something terrible happens which splits them apart.

From this point on present and past events, from the points of view of Lachy, Sheridan, Kai and Elizabeth, are detailed, leading towards a bombshell conclusion. This intelligent, mesmerising, intriguing (I could add a whole lot more adjectives, but I won’t) book grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. 

I haven’t read Petronella McGovern before but I will now.  Official verdict: WOW 😮!!

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

 

Jackson Brodie is back and he’s on the trail of an art thief. Jackson has been hired by a sister and brother whose mother has died and they are dividing up her possessions between themselves, in accordance with her Will. They have found that a painting their mother held dear is missing and they have asked Jackson to find it.

As he goes about this task, Jackson meets up with various characters from his past, both in person and in his mind. As usual, there is lots of witty repartee with all of them. As well, lovely new characters are introduced, including an agnostic vicar (call me Simon); Lady Milton and all who dwell in her Stately Home which has had to stoop to holding Murder Mystery weekends; Ben, an amputee war veteran and bee keeper, and more.  Jackson joins forces with Detective Constable Reggie Chase (with great reluctance on her part) who is hoping to capture a spree killer.

 The mystery of the stolen painting is cleverly laid out; Jackson Brodie is as quirky and as funny as ever, and there are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments through the book which is unputdownable, of course.

I have been in Kate Atkinson’s thrall since I first read Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a long time ago. She is still as brilliant as ever.

Published by Penguin

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

 

On a flight from Hobart to Sydney a passenger, ‘a lady’, suddenly gets up from her seat and starts to walk down the aisle, pointing to particular passengers and telling each of them when she expects they will die, and the cause of death.The flight attendant who tries to stop her is given her own prediction.

In her unique way, Liane Moriarty weaves an intriguing story from this starting point. The individual characters who, mostly, logically reject their assigned predictions, are all unsettled and unnerved, as who wouldn’t be? Under the circumstances who wouldn’t try to take control of this hypothetical destiny, you know, just in case? In every alternate chapter ‘the lady’ is telling her own story.

This is so clever, and so different, and I have never read a book like it. Individual characters have their own stories but I had no trouble remembering which was which because they were all examining aspects of life pertaining to each of them and so they all stood out. I wasn’t able to guess how the mystery of the lady and her predictions was going to be solved but when it was, it made for a most satisfactory ending.

Just brilliant!

Published by Pan Macmillan