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Weekly Words about New Books in
Independent Bookstores
July 29, 2018
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Two Mystery Pros Arrive in Paperback. One Provides a Noir Homage. For the Other, the Alphabet Ends At Y.
Sunburn by Laura Lippman. She's best known for her mystery series set in Baltimore and featuring reporter-turned-P.I. Tess Monaghan (
Charm City won the 1997 Edgar Award for
Best Paperback Original), but Lippman has also written sev
 eral successful stand-alone thrillers. This time, she channels noir master James Cain of
The Postman Always Rings Twice and
Double Indemnity fame in a novel of psychological suspense about a pair of lovers with the best intentions and the worst luck: two people locked in a passionate yet uncompromising game of cat and mouse. The two meet at a local tavern in a small Delaware town. Polly is set on heading west, and Adam says he's also passing through. Yet they both stay on, and over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Then, someone dies, and the secrets both have withheld threaten everything.
In a starred review,
Booklist wrote: "Ingeniously constructed and extremely suspenseful, the novel keeps us guessing right up until its final moments. Lippman is a popular and dependable writer, and this homage to classic noir showcases a writer at the height of her powers."
Y Is For Yesterday by Sue Grafton. This may not be the best of the Kinsey Milhone series, but it will be fondly and sadly remembered by fans as the last. When Sue Grafton passed away seven months ago, the famed alphabet series drew to a close one letter short. Furthermore, Grafton left strict instructions that no one take up the Milhone mantle after her death. So this is you
 r last chance to enjoy the fiercely independent private detective who lives happily alone, has a rocky relationship with authority, and is resourceful and largely unafraid. Both Milhone and her creator will be sorely missed by mystery fans worldwide.
Y is for Yesterday begins in 1979, when four teenage boys from an e
lite pr
ivate school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate - and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns state's evidence and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace. Now, it's 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents - until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That's when the McCabes call Kinsey for help. As she is dra
wn into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. At the same time, an old nemesis, serial killer Ned Lowe, has returned with his grudge against Kinsey dangerously intact.
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Author's Childhood Informs Striking Novel Set in Escobar-era Colombia
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by
Ingrid Rojas Contreras. This provocative debut novel is set in Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent
 reign and is based on the author's own childhood growing up in drug-ridden Bogota in the early 1990s. Contreras has composed not one but two coming-of-age stories in her narrative featuring a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.
Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hovers just outside the neighborhood walls, where the drug lord Escobar continues to elude authorities.
When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula becomes fascinated by the new servant's mysterious ways. Petrona's behavior is unusual, but it's fueled by the burden of providing for her family while becoming infatuated with a charismatic but dangerous boy. As both girls' families seek stability amidst a rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula develop a strong bond that is put to the test as they find themselves forced by events to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.
Author Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street) is among those who have praised Contreras and her book: "When women tell stories, they are finally at the center of the page. When women of color write history, we see the world as we have never seen it before. In Fruit of the Drunken Tree, Ingrid Rojas Contreras honors the lives of girls who witness war. Brava! I was swept up by this story."
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WHERE TO FIND
AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE
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WHY THE COLUMN?
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Hi, I'm Hut Landon, and I work as a bookseller in an independent bookstore in BerkeIey, California.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
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