March 19, 20201

Library Corner

Fiction

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson – Sixteen year old Rose is missing.  Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared.  Left behind is seven year old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister.  Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught.  Her sole comfort is Moses, the cat next door, whom she is looking after for his elderly owner, Mrs. Orchard, who went into the hospital weeks ago and has still not returned.  Enter Liam Kane, mid-thirties, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, who moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house- where, in Clara’s view, he emphatically does not belong.  Within a matter of hours he receives a visit from the police.  It seems he is suspected of a crime.  At the end of her life, Elizabeth Orchard is also thinking about a crime, one committed thirty years previously that had tragic consequences for two families, and in particular for one small child.  She desperately wants to make amends before she dies. 

The Survivors by Jane Harper – Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.  The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.  Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea.  Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.  When a body is discovered on the beach, long held secrets threaten to emerge.  A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away…

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn – 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.  Vivacious debutante Osla has everything – beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses – but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets.  Imperious self-made Mab, a product of East End London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and look for a socially advantageous husband.  Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts.  But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.  1947.  As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips postwar Britain into a fever, the three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter – the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum.  An enigmatic traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together.  But each petal they remove from the Rose Code brings danger – and their true enemy – closer…

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker – Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up.  He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old would of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before.  Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released.  Duchess is a thirteen year old self-proclaimed outlaw.  Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent.  Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction.  Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five year old brother.  At school the other kids make fun of Duchess – her clothes are torn, her hair a mess.  But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll thrown stones.  Rules are for other people.  She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together.  A fortysomething year old sheriff and a thirteen year old girl may not seem to have a lot in common.  But both have come to expect that people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open your heart it will be broken.  So when trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.