Faithful Place by Tana French. ***

I've seen this author's name before, but didn't take much notice of it. Then Imwas browsing through the mystery section at PCB Library, discovered she is an Irish writer, and sets her stories in Ireland, so I decided to read one of her books. This is a very Irish story, set in Dublin, and involving the family members of an undercover cop, Francis Mackey, an extremely dysfunctional family at that. Twenty years earlier, Francis was prepared to leave Ireland with his sweetheart, Rosie, but the night she is to meet him to leave together, she fails to show up. After twenty years, her suitcase is discovered and soon after that, her body, so Francis returns to Dublin  to solve the mystery of why she didn't leave and who murdered her. 

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

There are two Burgess Boys, Jim the hotshot lawyer, and Bob, the nice one, plus their sister Susan, who no one seems to like. Her son, Zachary, gets into trouble over an incident involving some Somali immigrants, thus bringing the Burgess boys together again, learning to deal with their childhood, learning to live with each other, and becoming a family again.

I'm a big fan of Strout's writing, but I found this took a while to really grab me. Good character development and good writing, but it lacked the power of Olive Kitteridge.

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

A mystery written in 1946, set at a Physical Education school for girls. The crime does not happen until the last third of the book, so you get to know the characters well, especially Miss Pym, who is the narrator of the book, and a guest lecturer in psychology at the school. Tey has little patience for artificiality and I really enjoyed her " asides" as the novel went on.

Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith

Really just a longer short stry this was the tale of Fatty and his wife Betty and their adventures/misadventures on their trip to Ireland. I read this in one day!

The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

An amusing story, quite satirical, reads like a fable, but I don't think it teaches any lessons, other than raising a mirror to our various imperfections as human beings. The book is extremely well- written, and the translator certainly did an excellent job. This is about a South African cleaning lady, a set of twins, both wth the same name, an atomic bomb, and two Mossad agents. We get a capsule history of Sweden's royalty, and of their political system. I'm sure this book is a hit in Sweden!