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!

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins ***

A

Rachel travels to London by train every morning, returning to her room in a friends' apartment every evening. On her daily journey, she sees a beautiful young couple on the patio of their home, and imagines their relationship, even to the point of naming them. But one day she sees "Jess" kissing another man on that patio, just before Jess goes missing.

A pretty good thriller told from the vantage point of three women. It was a quick read, not much substance, but I guess that's not expected from a thriller. I like to have a thought or two to chew on in my reading- I guess that's why mysteries are not high on my list of preferred reading.

While The World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry

I read this book just a week after seeing the film "Selma". The movie begins with the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, a bombing that killed four young girls, all of whom were friends of the author of this book. 

Carolyn relates her life story up to the day and hour of the bombing, concentrating on the discriminatory practices. I recall particularly Carolyn's grandmother, who spent the last two weeks of her life in a segregated hospital, in the basement of the hospital with dripping pipes, little food, and only cursory examinations by a doctor once in a while. 

Then there s her telling about the terrible treatment the blacks received at the hands of Bull Connor and the Birmingham police. Carolyn suffered for many, many years after the bombing that killed her friends. She was in the church that day and had just left her friends in the restroom when the bombing killed them.