I like soup. Do you like soup?

The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry, is a story woven like Massachusetts Ipswich lace, it is intricate, complicated, and its imperfections and uneven texture make it extremely suspenseful and sometimes maddening. The story revolves around Towner Whitney, a 32 year member of an old, quirky New England family, who works as a script reader in California. She is summoned back to her hometown of Salem on the occasion of the disappearance of her favorite relative, Eva. The old woman runs a tearoom out of her house near the Salem Commons, and is expert at reading lace, a method of fortune-telling. When Towner returns, the police discover Eva's drowned body, and after the funeral she finds that she has inherited Eva's estate. While she decides how to cope with her new responsiblities, she starts spending time with local police detective Rafferty, who has been investigating Eva's drowning. Cal, black sheep of the Whitney family and former spousal abuser, has "found God" and has become an evangelist preacher, and leader of a congregation of misfits and ex-drug addicts. When one of Cal's congregants goes missing, Rafferty suspects that Cal and his followers were involved. While investigating both of the crimes, Rafferty delves into Towner's history of psychic events, hallucinations, and her stay in a mental hospital. The return of Towner Whitney to Salem begins the process of truth, healing, and peace, that Eva's death set in motion.

Before CSI There Was...

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
by Kate Summerscale

In 1860, a three year old English boy disappears from his room in Road Hill House, where his nursemaid and younger sister sleep. He is later found with his throat cut in a privy and the case quickly becomes a media sensation. When local law enforcement fails to make progress, Scotland Yard sends the best of their eight detectives - Mr. Whicher- to investigate. This sparks a national fascination with detectives and inspires the detective fiction genre. Charles Dickens wrote his theories of the case to Wilkie Collins, who in turn based his Sgt. Cuff in The Moonstone upon Mr Whicher.

When the Scotland Yard Detective arrives at Road Hill he finds limited evidence, but a multitude of suspects and family secrets. When he accuses and arrests the boy's sixteen year old half sister of the crime, the tide of public opinion turns against him, refusing to believe a family member could commit such a crime. Mr Wilcher returns to London in disgrace, leaving the crime unsolved, until years later.

More then a true crime story, this is a fascinating peek into the lives and minds of middle class Victorian England as well as the society as a whole. The research is impressive and thoroughly documented with footnotes and references, but at the same time it is an enjoyable read.

In a Colma

Mercer is a rookie cop, a straight arrow sort, who can quote "The Rule Book," chapter and verse. His beat is Colma, California, the cemetery capital of the San Francisco Bay area. One night, while patrolling Cypress Lawn, he stumbles into what looks like a drug related crime involving a teenager. Mercer finds the boy naked and bound with duct tape, stuffed in a burial chamber in an obscure part of the cemetery. As the police rush the barely breathing boy to a hospital, Lilly Hitchcock Coit (of Coit Tower fame) observes the police cars and ambulances with interest. Though she is dead, she has not eaten the root of oblivion, and can still haunt the living world. As she passes, Mercer senses something not quite right, but sees nothing disturbing. Lilly is excited to note another potential "crosser," and hopes that he will be stronger than the last one. Can Mercer become the hero he desperately wants to be?
Doug Dorst in Alive in Necropolis spins a tale of trouble in the intertwined worlds of ghosts and humans with Mercer caught in the middle of both. The earthside story of Jude, the troubled youth found in the graveyard, blends with that of a deadly gang of ghosts bent on sending the spirits of the cemetery to their real deaths. Dorst skillfully creates two believable worlds of the imagination, using many of the old colorful characters who thrived in the crazy town of San Francisco. Strange and different, this is a book for readers who won't mind if their police procedurals are turned upside down.

A Sense of Belonging

In Marisa de los Santos' book, Belong to Me, we meet Cornelia and Theo, childhood friends who seemed to have been destined to marry. When they move from NYC to a small town near Philadelphia to be near his hospital, they hope to find more togetherness time and a few good neighbors. Within a week Cornelia meets a smart friendly waitress and the town trendsetter, two women who will change her life. Piper (aka Viper) is the perfect suburban mother, the kind who wears makeup and linen pants to the bus stop. Her husband is spending a lot of "overtime" at the office, but her friend is dying and she doesn't notice or care about anything else. Lake, the waitress, is an earth mother type with a great sense of humor and a mysterious past that she takes pains to conceal. She moved across country ostensibly to place her genius son in a great charter school, but Dev suspects that she is really tracking his father. The lives of these characters intertwine in very unexpected ways culminating in the revelation that might destroy a marriage.
If you're looking for a good read with well-drawn characters and lots of surprises, this book might "belong" on your bedside table.

When a Vermeer isn't a Vermeer, or I Bought What?

When is a painting considered a treasured masterpiece worth millions of dollars and then in a blink of an eye, it's an embarrassment viewed as poor quality art worth a few dollars at most? Read The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick and you'll find out the answer to that question as this book explores the true story of Han van Meegeren, a Dutch forger who fooled most of the art world.

Van Meegeren was a second rate artist who successfully painted several works which he passed off as having been done by Johannes Vermeer. The forgeries have many flaws in them, making one wonder how the art world was duped into believing that the works were authentic. While Van Meegeren wasn't gifted in artistic technique, he was skilled in the psychology of forgery. He knew that if he could get art critics to authenticate the artwork, there wouldn't be much problem in getting eager art collectors to purchase them. He developed a technique to age his paintings so that they would pass scientific tests done to verify the age of the materials. Abraham Bredius, who was considered to be the leading authority on Vermeer, judged one of Van Meegren's forgeries as being authentic, and the rest of the art world jumped on board and agreed that the painting was 100% genuine.

After that, it was smooth sailing for Van Meegeren until he was arrested after World War II had ended and he was charged with collaborating with the enemy. What happened was that he was connected with the sale of what was thought to be a genuine Vermeer, Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, but it was really one of his forgeries. The painting ended up being sold to Nazi Hermann Goering, who was a fanatical collector of art masterpieces. The sale of a national treasure to an enemy was a crime that was punishable by death. Since forgery was a far less serious crime, Van Meegeren confessed that he had really painted the supposed Vermeer, unfortunately no one believed him. In court, to show that he really was the painter of the Vermeer in question, he demonstrated his technique and was able to convince the court that his story was true.

This book raises many issues regarding the art world, including the debate over what is art, egoistic art critics who authenticate artwork by instinct rather than through scientific investigation, and the plundering of art during wartime. Van Meegeren had been angry at the art world because his paintings were criticized for being trite and not innovative. He felt that the art critics were hypocritical and he certainly got his revenge when his forgeries were promoted as beautifully painted genuine masterpieces.

My one criticism regarding the book is that it had a lot of buildup and seemed to take awhile before it got to the climax of the court trial. There were many preliminary chapters about other forgers, forgery techniques, and other information that could have been edited down a bit. Other than that, I found the subject very intriguing.

Travel back in time

TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney
Such a great book! It is one of my all-time favorites. A book that has the magic to allure you with the wonder of time traveling back to a simpler time. Finney, with meticulous detail and the support of numerous old photographs, recreates New York in 1882. We and the main character, Si Morley, marvel as we walk over the old streets, see places where one day great skyscrapers will stand, gaze on a traffic jam of hansom cabs, and discover the arm of the Statue of Liberty sitting in Madison Square awaiting the rest of its body. There’s a mystery, suspense and wonderful writing. You must read this!

When Death Tells a Story You Better Listen

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Death has been extremely busy in World War II Germany, so he is surprised when his attention is caught by a young girl. He first notices her when he comes to pick up the spirit of her brother and sees her steal her first book (The Grave Digger's Handbook). This girl Liesel Meminger leaves such an impression that he feels compelled to share her story - and it's some story. Liesel is an illiterate daughter of communists who is placed in a foster home by her mother. Her foster parents, Hans, a kind painter and accordian player and Rosa Hubermann who is quick with sharp word (she especially enjoys calling people Saumensch-filthy pigs) give her a loving home. Hans also gives her a gift, one that will sustain her through the difficulties that lie ahead, he teaches her how to read. Along with her friend Rudy, who once painted himself black and pretended to be Jesse Owens as a tribute, Liesel tries to survive the tumultuous times. Faced with hunger, bombings, book burnings, Nazis, fear and suspicion, Liesal steals and reads books to cope. Then things become even more difficult and dangerous when her foster parents hide a Jewish man, Max in their basement.

The narrative style of the novel is interesting, with plenty of asides and foreshadowing. The story is heart wrenching at times and heartwarming at others and you can't help rooting for the strong, yet vulnerable Liesel. Quirky and intelligent, it is a great read. Interestingly this book was first marketed in the United States as a young adult book, but quickly became popular with adults as well.