From serial killers’ wives to enigmatic echidnas: 10 new books
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The week’s reviews cover the genre spectrum, from dystopian climate fiction, whimsical road trip fiction and murder mysteries to royalty, pivotal relationships and a moving WWII memoir.
FICTION SELECTION OF THE WEEK
The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives
Elizabeth Arnott
Viking, $34.99
Set in 1960s California, Elizabeth Arnott’s latest film follows sunny era crimes where secondary victims become sleuths. Beverley, Elsie and Margot were unlucky in love. Each married a convicted murderer. Afterwards, they become friends and try to put their lives back together in the face of neighborhood gossip and the lingering stigma of their husbands’ bad reputation. But when a series of new murders make headlines, these three women may be the key to catching a serial killer: after all, they have the distinct advantage of having lived with a serial killer themselves. The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives weaves a world full of gossip and vanity, but the characters’ emotional authenticity and familiarity with the darkness behind the idyllic exterior shapes their evolution into sleuths and gives this serial killer thriller a winning edge. Arnott delves deep into the women whose lives have been derailed by crime before allowing them to reassert themselves as unlikely detective avengers.
Coat
Romy Ash
Ultimo, $34.99
Romy Ash’s debut Wobble (2013) was shortlisted for Miles Franklin. His long-awaited second novel CoatSurfing a dystopian climate wave. If it weren’t so obvious, it might have been trendy (like flirting with the popular suggestion that humanity would be doomed by a fungal epidemic). Middle-aged Ursula travels to the Tasmanian coast to care for her mother, Delores, after a mysterious illness. Delores has become a hippie recluse, and her cliff-top home overlooking the ocean looks like the place to die. The rash that Dolores developed is spreading among the public. A pandemic was declared. The borders are closed and Ursula finds herself trapped. Although she has the pleasant pastime of sleeping with Toby, a much younger man she meets at the bar, their encounter turns surreal when they wake up with their skin stuck together with strange tendrils. Nothing seems to be able to stop the fungal infection from killing its hosts, and Ursula is consumed with fear and curiosity as the novel takes an existential turn. Ash’s dark vision is personalized and grounded at best; sometimes figuratively based on Ursula’s emotional environment; and sometimes literally (Ursula is a geologist). A gripping novel of disaster, full of personal and worldwide suffering.
The End Writes Itself
Evelyn Clarke
Headquarters, $32.99
A stabbing publishing satire and locked room murder mystery rolled into one. The End Writes Itself It is set on a remote, privately owned Scottish island to which six business writers from different genres have been invited. Their mission? To write a worthy ending to the unfinished last novel of the world-famous and recently deceased Arthur Fletch. within 72 hours. Prize? A small fortune in cash and a three-book publishing contract. The contest to write the best ending reveals each writer’s secrets and nerves, and as the book bounces between characters’ perspectives, the literary game soon turns into a deadly game. VE was co-written by Schwab and fellow screenwriter Cat Clarke. The End Writes Itself It combines a twisted noir comic of life-denying tendencies in the publishing world (weakness and disillusionment especially applied to “midlist” writers) with all the tropes and twists you’d expect from a classic Agatha Christie-style mystery. Secondly, it should appeal to a wide audience of crime fiction lovers; and the fast-paced, sharp, character-driven satire will make industry insiders grimace.
Make sure you die screaming
Zee Carlstrom
Verve Books, $24.99
Anonymous and non-binary queer narrator Make sure you die screaming He’s on a mission to find their father, a MAGA supporter and conspiracy theorist who went missing in rural Arkansas. The narrator is quite left-wing. They cannot stand their parents’ policies and are filled with anger at the state of the world. Accompanied by her new friend and self-proclaimed “trash goth” Yivi, a booze-filled road trip through Chicago starts out messy and quickly gets messier. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The atmosphere of self-destructive debauchery and strange encounters piling up before a hellish homecoming arrives. Zee Carlstrom creates a youthful voice brimming with resentment against all forms of inequality (most notably class) and flirting with an almost nihilistic worldview. This is a novel fueled by the modern political polarization that divides families. Carlstrom is smart enough to suggest that parallels can be found at both poles in this strange journey from the blue center to the red.
nights
Frances Whiting
HarperCollins, $34.99
An unusually close group of high school friends called themselves the Nightmen and joked that they were Australia’s answer. Breakfast Club. Ten years have passed since they last saw each other, but when charismatic Hunter calls for a reunion, there’s no doubt Nina (Good Girl), Beatrice (Poet), Harriet (Ghost) and Cosmo (Professor) will heed the call. Why did the friends part ways a long time ago? So why did Hunter collect them now? Everything unfolds in dual timelines, in a well-constructed novel that nimbly introduces likable characters. Whiting examines teen movie stereotypes before complicating and obscuring them, but nights above all, it is a joyful look at the formative friendships of youth and the loyalties they can inspire. In fact, the fumes of teenage alchemy are so strong in this novel that it must appeal to a young teenage readership as well as a more mature readership.
NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
Mysterious Echidona
Danielle Clode
Black Inc., $36.99
Welcome to the fascinating world of Echidna. Natives of Australia and New Guinea, these animals are, among other things, incredibly strong; After trying to trap an echidna in the kitchen overnight, a scientist discovered that the monster had moved the refrigerator in the morning. They are also legendary escape artists and can escape from just about anything, while also having “a careless air about them, as if they don’t care what the rest of the world does.” Clode, a biologist and acclaimed natural history writer, divides his work into three parts: the mysterious past of echidnas (the early ones were huge), the way they perceive and live the world, and the future. Along the way, he includes depictions of the monster by native artists, from rock art to children’s fairy tales, as well as early European studies, often by scientists who had never seen the beast alive. It is no surprise that the likes of Banjo Paterson see “Bristler” as the epitome of the tough Australian warrior – “…prickly, unsociable and non-conformist”. Clode has an engaging, slyly fun style that gets into the spirit of the pointy thing.
Murder in Paris ’68
Edward Chisholm
Monorail, $34.99
Reading this reenactment of the scandalous Paris murder of 1968 is like stepping into the pages of Georges Simenon. stop rome, or immerse yourself in one of those cool, existential New Wave French movies. It starts with a body. He was found by a tramp just outside Versailles. The head was pulverized. Fingerprints indicate that the person who went to the Paris address was Stevan Markovic, a Yugoslav immigrant. Which is where? A deadly man actor Alain Delon joins the story; Delon also lived at the same address. A petty criminal, part-time movie stuntman and Delon’s bodyguard, Markovic was also involved in the murky underworld of not-so-petty crimes. The two are the same height and look alike; Chisholm writes in some photos that you can do this to be Delon. He was even wearing Delon’s clothes when he was killed. And that’s just for starters, because the scandal extends to the highest level, involving the wife of future French president Georges Pompidou. Chisholm meticulously uses five tons of famous archival material, creatively directing events (sometimes switching between Delon being on the film set and being questioned by the police, Delon always “acting”) in a narrative that, in her words, is non-fiction but reads like a novel. Beautifully written and engagingly reimagined.
How Do We Build Relationships?
Doctor Ahona Guha
Clerk, $36.99
This is an unconventional guide to navigating relationships; because it is often confessional as well as analytical. Guha, a clinical psychologist, includes her own story: the complexities of an Indian intercultural family, an explosive mother (who reenacts her own abuse as her daughter), a distant father, a culture of silence, and a dysfunctional first marriage. But most of all, it examines the many ways we experience relationships in all their forms, from romantic love to our relationships with ourselves and our pets. In fact, our relationship with ourselves is seen as crucial to understanding what we want, especially in terms of our past patterns of behavior and attraction. Guha, for example, realized that what she valued was “a community and care, not a single, intimate relationship.” It also challenges readers to tune into their conflicting impulses. “We can find fulfillment in our relationships,” he writes And alone” A direct look at the human need for connection.
The World Belongs to Children
Raya Goldtwig
Confirm, $36.99
At a train station in Russia in 1941, Raya Goldtwig’s mother lay down on the tracks in front of the engine with her two children. These were Polish Jews who fled to Russia in 1939. But Germany had invaded Russia (his father had been drafted), it was the last train to leave the city, and his mother had decided to die there rather than be captured by the Germans if they didn’t make it. This is just one of many harrowing scenes in this memoir of his family’s World War II experience. And the book becomes even more dramatic as it is seen through the imaginative eyes of a child: air raids, narrow escapes, blizzards, hunger and brutal violence are endowed with the unreality of a dark fairy tale. It’s also very touching, especially Goldtwig’s haunting memory of her childhood friend Mala. Goldtwig’s book emphasizes the sanctity of childhood, but also describes events that no human being (let alone a child) should have to endure.
Betrayal
Tom Bower
Wink, $36.99
The name Wallis Simpson appears only a few times in Tom Bower’s book, a follow-up to his previous work on Harry and Meghan. RevengeBut there’s a sense of deja vu to the saga: Simpson, the American divorcee who precipitated Edward’s abdication in 1936, and Meghan, the American divorcee behind “megxit.” Bower touches on key points such as the tension and distrust within the royal family, the controversy surrounding Elizabeth’s death and funeral, Netflix flops, promotional campaigns and the emergence of the couple as a “brand”. And most of the time they don’t look very good. Like other observers, Bower (who is no stranger to scandal) thinks the House of Windsor is at a crossroads and that the resolution of this latest scandal (if at all) is crucial to its future. A tangled, sometimes sticky web. One for royal watchers.
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