While You Are Waiting...Lucy Foley
February 21, 2022 Reading Room Library Staff
Many of us are eagerly awaiting the new title from Lucy Foley, The Paris Apartment. In it, Jess arrives in Paris to visit her brother Ben, only to find that he is missing. As she sets out to find him, she realizes that everyone knows something, but nobody is talking. What happened to Ben, and will she find him before it is too late for both of them? It is sure to be her usual unreliable narrative where nothing is as it seems, full of fast-paced suspense. Get on the hold list today (if you aren't already there!), and while you are waiting, give a few of these authors a try!
Rosie Walsh: I just finished reading Walsh's latest, The Love of My Life, hitting the library now. We meet Emma and Leo at a scary moment in their lives – they are about to learn if Emma’s cancer is in remission. Leo is an obituary writer, and one of the ways he deals with his stress is to start writing Emma’s obituary – which she specifically asked him not to do. He soon learns out why – as he does an innocent search to confirm a detail from her university days, he finds out that she has lied about her degree. What else has she lied about? Emma’s diagnosis is very positive, but this does not stop what Leo has put in motion with his questions. This has all the usual hallmarks of Foley's titles - it is suspenseful and the narrative has multiple perspectives, slowly leading the reader to a surprising reveal. In this case, one with so many shades of gray that I think this would make an excellent book club title. You could also try Walsh's other novel, Ghosted.
Peter Swanson: I really enjoy Swanson's novels. They are fast paced and always leave me guessing until the very end. His latest, Nine Lives, has a very And Then There Were None vibe. It is hitting the shelves in March, so be sure to get on the hold list today. My favorite Swanson title is Eight Perfect Murders. Malcolm is a bookstore owner and mystery genre enthusiast who created a list of what he considers the eight most perfect murders in fiction. The FBI shows up at his door one night, asking about the list. It seems that there is someone out there trying to copy those murders, and the trail is leading them right to Malcolm. Or you could try a few that are sitting on the shelf right now: Every Vow You Break, Before She Knew Him, and All the Beautiful Lies.
Lisa Unger: I remember reading Beautiful Lies many years ago - back before Gillian Flynn made the unreliable narrator a trend - and being so glad that I had a found a new thriller writer to enjoy. In this one, Ridley Jones, through a series of coincidence and seemingly small decisions, puts herself on a path that might ruin her perfect life. She discovers a package on her doorstep containing a photo of a family with the caption "Are you my daughter?". Ridley now questions everything about her life, and everyone in it, including the mysterious new man she is dating. Who can she trust? A true literary thriller, this one is full of both suspense and things to think about. Unger has written many titles since then - her latest are Confessions on the 7:45 and Last Girl Ghosted.
Happy reading!