Jan 1 - 7, 2017

Notwithstanding by Louis de Berniers - a collection of short stories that take place in the English village of Notwithstanding, a fictional stand-in for the village of the author's youth. The village is full of eccentrics and their equally eccentric animals. I don't know if such villages ever actually existed but I like to think that they did. My favorite was the story of the ill-fated dinner party.

4 stars
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The Black Tower by P.D. James - Inspector Adam Dagliesh is recovering from a serious illness when he is asked to come visit an old friend hoping for some advice. But he arrives too late, not long after the death of the elderly chaplain. There's something not quite right at Toynton Grange, a home for the disabled. Poison pen letters, attempted murders and actual murders take place before Dagliesh discovers what's going on. Too many characters were introduced all at once and I had trouble keeping them straight. Also, I thought the conclusion was slightly unfair as it went in a completely different direction.

3 stars
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The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman - Irene is a junior librarian in a very unusual library. It exists between parallel worlds and it's sole purpose is the retrieval of books by any means necessary. Irene and her new assistant are sent to a steampunk-like London filled with vampires, werewolves and the Fae to retrieve a book that is the only one in existence. I enjoyed the story but there is a lot of information and introduction of characters to take in. I never did quite understand chaos-infestation. This is the first book in a series and I'm anxious to read the second now that I know the characters.

3 stars
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The Sugar House by Laura Lippman - the 5th Tess Monaghan book finds her doing a favor for her father. A woman thinks her brother was targeted for murder while serving a sentence for the manslaughter of a young woman. But Tess must first find out the identity of the young woman who was killed. Lots of jogs and turns in this one and the whole thing felt not very cohesive to me.

2 stars