Genre: Mystery

A strong opening chapter followed by a lot of slow plodding around sleepy Wakarusa, Indiana, I had my doubts about All Good People Here being able to close things out and salvage itself after a very lackluster first half. Fortunately I thought it did just that once Ashley Flowers’ background in True Crime podcasting pick up in the last third of the book and lends itself to a successful and at times exciting resolution. My biggest gripe with All Good People Here lies with the main protagonist leads and the perspectives of Margot Davies in the present 2019 and Krissy Jacobs in the past beginning with her childhood and the sequence of unfortunate events in 1994. For me personally it felt like the two women were in constant competition of who was more insufferable to read about and who would make the unintelligent emotion-driven decision at any given moment (which is quite counterintuitive for a supposedly successful journalist). I realize this is to show character development and growth; for Margot it’s to show growing validation for her initially off-base preconceived assumptions on the case and for Krissy, to show a young adult trapped and spiraling in a life she never…

Not sure if it’s because I’ve watched endless true crime documentaries, procedural dramas like Criminal Minds and Mindhunter, or I just have high standards for the murder mystery genre, but A Flicker in the Dark did not catch or hold my attention. I felt like I was coasting while reading the first 1/3 of the book and the overall reading experience went downhill the farther I progressed through the story. Most of my negative impression can be chalked up to Chloe Davis’s personality and trauma attributed to her upbringing and exposure to the media/local community associated with her Dad’s arrest. I liked the concept of her backstory and how it affected her mindset, career choices, and paranoia, however the execution felt clunky and off-putting. I hate to stereotype novels into specific demographics, but the Chloe’s monologue skewed so heavily toward a female audience I felt like I was being beaten over the head repeatedly for 100 pages about how dangerous and unfair life can be for an independent woman. Her character’s personality and background as a psychologist with a phd also constantly conflicted with the choices she makes and thoughts she has. The book makes an attempt to highlight anxiety…

Full disclosure, I decided to read The Glass Hotel purely because I had purchased a copy of the Sea of Tranquility not realizing there’s a bit of overlap and a cameo appearance by the character of Mirella who has a supporting role in The Glass Hotel and a main arc in Tranquility (they’re both standalone but I wanted to read them in order regardless). I had little expectation based on the vague and convoluted synopsis for the Glass Hotel, but perhaps having no expectations enhanced the reading experience as I was blow away by the back half and ending of this book. This was an absolute page-turner for me from the half-way mark but not in a traditional sense or one that most readers will agree with. It’s difficult to describe and summarize, but the gist of The Glass Hotel involved the reveal and collapse of a large-scale Ponzi scheme involving investments and the impact it has on a giant cast of characters (money and wealth is a constant theme throughout but that’s not the only fallout involved). Reading the Glass Hotel feels like watching Mandel play a game of chess with herself. The novel includes no less than at…