The Nature Of The Beast by Louise Penny ****

Armand Gamache has retired to Tall Pines, but finds himself involved again in crime solving when a young boy, Laurent, is killed after telling everyone about a huge gun he had found in the woods. 

Gamache, his son-in-law Beauvoir, and Chief Inspector Isabel Lacoste are kept busy when the huge gun is actually found in the forest with a strange and evil etching on it. Several days later another person, Antoinette is killed, and Gamache discovers she was the niece of a man who assisted in its construction.

The plot becomes thicker, and the danger greater as more possible suspects seem to appear. In all of this, the cosy little town with its BandB and the bistro, the bookstore, the grocery store, offers a contrast to the evil gun resting in the forest.

Then ding has all the ends tied up nicely, then you read the afterword by the author and find that this story is based on facts!

Landing Gear by Kate Pullinger. ****

A woman named Harriet is pushing her grocery cart towards her car in the supermarket parking lot near Heathrow airport when a man falls out of the sky onto the hood of her car. The man- a Pakistani named Yacub- is unhurt, rolls off the hood, and Harriet takes him home, and hides him. His appearance is the catalyst for change in the household of Harriet, her husband Michael, and their teenaged son Jack.

Secrets are broken and kept, connections are made, and there are some coincidences as well. 

Facebook has a role in this story as well, and opens a discussion of how social media affects our day to day living.

I liked this book because it was a quick, entertaining read. I enjoyed the glimpse of a modern family, the connections throughout the book,, the stresses of living a regular kind of life .

No Relation by Terry Fallis ***

Fallis' fourth novel is about a young man called Earnest Hemmingway, his problems with dealing with a name so familiar to everyone, especially since he was also an aspiring writer. He forms a group of people who all have famous names - Jackie Kennedy, Mhatma Gandhi, Jesse Owens, Diana Ross, among others, plus Marie Antoinette, who runs a bakery called Let Them Eat Cake.

The story is comic, and there were a few chuckles, but I tired of it after a while, although I guess you could say I finished it.