Kala

by Colin Walsh

Doubleday/PRH

July 25, 2023

    Kinlough is a small tourist town where the locals all seem to know each other, but few know the secrets keeping the town financially afloat. Fifteen years ago, six teenagers find out more than they should. In school, Kala, Aoife and Helen were best friends; Joe, Mush and Aiden their counterparts. Their youth ended a night in early November when Kala disappeared. Now they are older but not as much wiser as they want to think.

    A suspense novel told in several voices, you'll be tempted to read ahead as the tension increases,  but don't - each voice is distinct and needs to be heard.

If you would like to know more about or own this book, please try your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org. Note that it will be available July 25th.

 The Lock-Up

by John Banville

Harper Collins

    John Banville is a literary, Booker prize winning author who also has written several wonderful mysteries. This is the latest. In his usual way, Banville brings together traditional mystery elements with much larger concerns and leaves the reader with much to think about, and his characters are delightfully difficult.

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please visit your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org.

 I Have Some Questions for You

by Rebecca Makkai

Viking Press

   Bodie Kane is no longer the young, insecure student at a small boarding school in the wilds of New Hampshire. She returns there as a visiting professor with deep misgivings about her time then and now - teaching a film class to students who want to look into the murder that happened during her senior year. 

   There is the murder, the possibility that the wrong person is in jail, and the question of sexual improprieties between a teacher and his student, or perhaps students. Over all there is the question of memory, and memories - how each individual may be remembering what happened in very different ways. And whether any justice was served.

   Makkai works serious questions of the treatment of women, professionally and sexually, into the novel without losing the intrigue or momentum of the novel. 

If you would like to know more about or own this book, please try your local bookstore or bookshop.org