The Expats by Chris Pavone

The Expats is a new thriller by time author Chris Pavone.  It was a quick, fun and enjoyable book. I'd quite happily pick up his next novel.  Pavone was a cookbook editor before he wrote this novel.

The Moores relocate to Luxembourg because Dexter has a new job with a bank there.  Kate leaves her public policy job in Washington D.C. and becomes a full time mother.  Unbeknownst to her husband, she in fact gave up for job with the CIA as a field operative.  The Moores are befriended by other American expats in Luxembourg.  Kate's training kicks in and she immediately suspects that the new friends are not who they say they are.  She begins to follow her intuition and uncovers layers and layers of deception.

What makes this novel a little different from the typical spy thriller is that it does not focus on any large international issues.  Rather, it is a highly personal and close up look into the mind of a spy.  Pavone does an great job of giving Kate voice and slowly revealing the facts.  There are several well executed "gotcha" moments.  Overall, it was a well executed and fun read.  The writing is crisp and easily approachable.

The interview video below was taped at The Mysterious Bookshop (my favorite bookshop in NYC).  If you jump to 3:51 and 5:19 in the video, you'll see me wandering around the bookstore.

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller, a first time novelist, is one of the 2011 Man Booker long list contenders.  Unlike many of the current long list contenders, Snowdrops is already available in the United States.  I would be surprised if it gets to the short list.  The bookies agree because the odds for Snowdrops are 16/1.

Nick Platt is a British lawyer working in Moscow post-2000.  Nick is rudderless and unmarried at 38 and seeking excitement, which is why he ends up practicing law in Moscow. While on the subway, he encounters two young, attractive sisters, Masha and Katya, a pair of purse snatchers.  He develops a relationship with them.  Meanwhile, Nick is involved in a mega-deal with an important firm client.  Like everything in Moscow, neither the girls nor the deal are quite what they seem.  The development of both story lines uses exotic, hedonistic Moscow as a backdrop and important character.  The novel is written years after the fact as a confessional letter from Nick to his wife.

The novel's cover calls it "an intense psychological drama about the irresistible allure of sin".  The cover jacket designer was selling a different book.  While it is a well paced and well written, I would not call the novel an intense drama.  For three years, Miller was a correspondent for The Economist in Moscow.  He seems to have a good feel for Moscow.  However, other more informed reviewers have noted that the novel does nothing new with post-communist Moscow.  For an excellent  book on life in post-communist Russia, which deals with the corruption and everything else, I'd suggest Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan.  As you may recall, Shteyngart published Super Sad True Love Story last year, which was one of my 2010 favorites.

Snowdrops was a good novel but not a great one.  If it is on your list or someone gives it to you to read, don't toss it aside.  On the other hand, if you are limited for time,  pass on it.  Try Absurdistan instead or another 2011 Booker contender.

If you want to read an excerpt of the novel, click here.

Conflict of Interest by Adam Mitzner

A Conflict of Interest is a first novel by Adam Mitzner.  It is a well-written legal thriller.  Reviewers have compared Mitzner to Scott Turow and John Grisham.  My friends at the Mysterious Bookshop got behind this one, and as is often the case, they got this one right.

The novel's protagonist, Alex Miller, works in a prestigious criminal defense firm.  Shortly after Alex's father passes away, a close friend of his father asks Alex to defend him in a securities fraud criminal case.  Alex accepts the representation.  In the course of that representation, Alex learns about his father, his client and himself through personal and professional tests.  From there, the action takes off.

This well-paced novel has plenty of twists and turns and well developed  characters.  The dialogue is real, the plot is believable and even the lawyering is credible.   (Mitzner is an attorney, which comes across.)  Even though this is a legal thriller (and the legal procedures appear generally right), Mitzner does not bog down the plot with too much lawyering.  This first novel is page-turner and a perfect summer read.

A video of the author discussing the book:

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

22 Britannia Road, by Amanda Hodgkinson, is a first novel about the struggle of two-Polish ex-patriots readjusting to life after WWII in England.  In this ambitious novel, Janusz, Silvana and their son Aurek are split up during the war while Janusz goes to fight and Silvana and Aurek try to survive.  It is a good (not great), readable, sentimental novel. 

The novel proceeds with three story lines -- Janusz's experience fighting against the Nazis; Silvana's struggle to take care of her infant; and their attempt to reconstruct a family and rebuild a life in England after the war.   At the outset, Janusz goes to battle and ends up joining the English military.  He has difficult war experiences.  Silvana and Aurek flee Warsaw and survive in the forests and on the benevolence of peasants.  When the family is reunited in England after the war, Aurek, who grew up in the forest, must learn to cope in civilization (a slight hint of Room by Emma Donaghue here).  Silvana, who is fiercely protective of her son, must rebuild a relationship with her husband across the chasm of horrific experiences and choices they each have made.

Hodgkinson develops the main characters reasonably well (the supporting characters are very stereotypical) and delivers a few interesting plot twists.  That said, Silvana's development is a bit predictable and while Janusz has hard experiences, he does not make hard choices.  While the novel is a very good debut, the story does not hit it out of the park. 

There have been several highly favorable reviews.  Waterstones (the Barnes & Noble of Britain) picked this as one of their favorites of 2011.  Amazon picked it as a Best of the Month Selection.  Several bloggers have gotten behind this book (see Lemuria Bookstore Blog here, Gillian Hamer here and Burton Books here). 

If you liked Major Petrigrew's Last Stand (my review here), The Invisible Bridge, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or other similar books, you probably will enjoy this one. If those are not quite for you, you should pass on it.

The book's promotion site is here.

Author interview here.  Sorry, I couldn't find any videos with the author.

The Dewey Decimal System by Nathan Larson

The Dewey Decimal System is a fun, noir murder mystery by first time novelist Nathan Larson.

Sometime in the not too distant future, New York has suffered from another terrorist attack, 2/14 as it is called, and a total collapse.  The protagonist,  Dewey Decimal, has taken up residence in the New York City Public Library.  He is a germ freak, is obsessed with Purell TM, has a "system" (he must travel according to specific algorithms), appears to be a former soldier (his memory seems to have been erased) and lives "off the grid."  Decimal is assigned by the New York District Attorney to hunt down a man.  Rapidly, Decimal finds himself caught in a violent conflict between the DA, the FBI and former Eastern European thugs.  Alliances shift, people die and Decimal tries to stay faithful to his internal ethical compass.  Throughout, Decimal whirls through post-apocalyptic New York

The narration is strong, allowing Decimal to come across clearly.  The narrative style reminded me of Ken Bruen's mystery series.  While it is clear that "bad things" happened in New York, Larson never conveys exactly what happened.  It is effective to keep the reader engaged and avoids the author from artificially entering the story with an explanation.  Larson has a firm grasp of New York City, which ends up being one of the key supporting characters in the story.  My only critique is that Decimal has a significant surgery early in the book and has a miraculous (and not plausible) recovery.  Aside from this slip, the book worked.

I came across this novel because my friends at the Mysterious Bookshop got behind this author and printed a special edition of the book.  If you are looking for something light and engaging, this is a good choice.  Be aware, like books of this genre, it is appropriately violent.

I couldn't find an author interview video but came across Cookie Monster in the Library and it made me smile.

Bright Before Us by Katie Arnold-Ratliff

Bright Before Us is a first novel by Katie Arnold-Ratliff, published by the literary house, Tin House.  With this novel, Arnold-Ratliff, an assistant editor at O, The Oprah Magazine, forcefully enters the literary world.

The novel's narrator, Francis Mason, is a twenty-something, progressive second grade teacher in San Francisco.  On a field trip to the beach with his class, Mason discovers the body of a suicide victim.  The trauma of the experience unravels Mason, who becomes lost in memories of his childhood love, Nora, who lost her parents in a car accident, and forces him to contend with marital unhappiness and anxieties about his wife's pregnancy.  Mason rapidly unhinges and becomes slightly paranoid, mixing reality and fantasy, while he contends with choices and understandings about love and loss.  Mason ends up on a road trip (see a cool map documenting the trip that Arnold-Ratliff put together here) and addresses his fears.

While Arnold-Ratliff uses simple and approachable language, there is nothing simplistic about this novel.  Arnold-Ratliff paints a vivid and believable portrait of San Francisco (an excellent choice of back drop for this novel) and paranoia.  At one point, Mason's paranoia becomes so intense that the novel begins to feel more like a murder mystery than a literary novel.  Arnold-Ratliff effectively switches narrational approaches in each chapter as a way of marking two separate but interlinked story lines.  The risk with a novel that explore the inner-psyche of its characters is that the plot stagnates (if there is one at all).  Throughout the novel, Arnold-Ratliff maintains authorial command and convincingly propels the narrative forward. 

I approached this novel with an open mind, was immediately engaged and could not put it down.  I was pleasantly surprised by how caught up in Mason's character I was.  Bright Before Us is a thoughtful and worthwhile book, which I would recommend reading.

For an author interview, click here.

If you happen to collect books (and not just read them), Powell's terrific IndieSpensable program is featuring this title in a special printing as its current installment.  Click here for details. (No promotional consideration received for this endorsement).

Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman

If you like Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union) or Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction (see clip below) among others), you'll enjoy the debut novel by Ned Beauman, Boxer Beetle (available in the US in August 2011; available from the UK now at this link).  It is a fun, eccentric and well-executed novel with a wild cast of characters.

First, there is Kevin "Fishy" Broom, a modern day dealer in Nazi memorabilia, who suffers from from trimethylaminuria: a rare condition that means he smells of rotting fish.  Fishy stays at home and traffics in Nazi items over the internet.  Then, there is Philip Erksine, a 1930s fascist and entomologist, who is trying to apply eugenics first to his study of beetles and then to humans.  There is also Sinner Roach, a five foot tall, nine-toed, Jewish, homosexual boxer, who Eriskine determines is a perfect subject for his studies.

The novel moves between two story lines.  The first plot line leads Fishy to a crime-scene and then a hunt for rare Nazi items and a murderer.  The second plot line is in the 1930s (the bulk of the book), in which Erksine pursues his eugenics experiments and Roach.

The book is witty, fun and well written.  Like Chabon's works, the book has a comic book feel but is excellent and well-paced literature.  Beauman was recently selected by the Guardian newspaper as one of Britain's 12 best new novelists.

A key document from the book:

A clip with Beauman:

Another review from Paperback Reader.
Pulp Fiction Clip:

 

Heresy by S.J. Parris

Heresy, An Historical Thriller, by S.J. Parris, is the first novel in a new mystery series set in 1583 in Oxford, England.  At the center of the novel is Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church.  Bruno, a street smart philosopher, finds his way to England and seeks refuge there to spread his more tolerant religious thinking.  Bruno is invited to speak at Oxford.  En route, he is recruited as a spy by Protestant Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state to report on underground Catholic activities in Oxford.  As an excommunicated Catholic, the Queen can trust him; but as a Catholic, he has access to people and meetings that Protestants will never manage.  At Oxford, several people die and Bruno, the outsider, is thrust into the role of detective. Parris loosely bases her protagonist on the real monk and philosopher, Giordano Bruno. 

The historical novelist faces two challenges: creating a believable setting and telling a good story in that setting.  Parris succeeded at creating a realistic and detailed back drop with characters that have real flaws.  Although the story shows terrific promise and generates intrigue and tension, it ends a too melodramatically and fizzes out by the end.

Recommendation:  If you want the very best in historical thrillers, I'd first recommend CJ Sansom and David Liss.  Parris is an up-and-comer with good potential.  Her newest novel, Prophecy, is due out in the U.S. in early May.


Other reviews: From the TBR Pile and S Krishna's Books.  Both are lukewarm.  
 

Author interview:

Book Review - The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Hannah Pittard's first novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way, is a fascinating concept novel.  Pittard is an accomplished short story writer.  In this novel, she creates a well-paced narrative and effectively uses interesting storytelling techniques.

On Halloween night in a mid-Atlantic state, sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell disappears.  This is how the novel assertively opens: "Some things were certain; they were undeniable, inarguable.  Nora Lindell was gone, for one thing.  There was no doubt about it."

The story then develops into a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, spinning out possible narratives of what might have happened to Nora.  (She probably did this, she might have done that.)  The possibilities of what might have happened to Nora are told and then retold, carrying the novel forward.  While the grammatical form is a little unfamiliar in a novel, Pittard manages it very well.  In parallel, Pittard tells the story of what actually did happen to Nora's sister and father and the community in which they all lived. 

What makes the novel even more interesting is that it is written in the first person plural.  The narrator is a group of boys who were Nora's classmates.  The "we" are intrigued by Nora's teenage sexuality and, for the rest of their lives, the boys wander aimlessly through marriages, divorces, crimes and death still in the clutches of Nora and what might have been.  Pittard nailed the group voice.  If the first person plural is of interest to you, you should also read  Joshua Ferris' hysterical (and yet sad) examination of office life in Then We Came to the End.

Recommendation: The mix of the first person plural voice and the choose-your-own-adventure approach to the novel makes it a refreshing and inventive book.  Pittard expertly develops the story like a carefully crafted kaleidoscope.

Other reviews: Book Lady's Blog, Devourer of Books, Shelf Love and Book Sake.

Interview with Pittard here.

The publisher's discussion of the book: