Final 2016 catch up

I never actually finished writing about all of the books that I read in 2016!  I have two to share today – one that I finished and one that I didn’t.

I listened to The Trespasser by Tana French on audio, which had its downsides.  It was about twenty hours long!  I thought that I’d never finish it, which is not a good feeling to have lurking in the background when you are working through a book.  It set a hurried tone, which made it difficult for me to slow down and really concentrate on the investigation.  Perks of listening to this on audio were that the narrator spoke in an Irish accent and I could hear how the names were supposed to be pronounced, which is sometimes difficult for me!

This one was about a beautiful young blonde woman found murdered in her home.  The investigation zeroes in on her boyfriend very quickly, but the detectives on the case believe that there’s something more at play here.  Loyalty, importance of familial bonds, and the desperation that people feel when the integrity of their lives is threatened all played a large role.  And as usual, French does a great job with the police procedural.  It’s always fun to get an inside look at the mind of a detective and the games that they have to play to find the perpetrator.  This doesn’t beat my favorite of the Dublin Murder Squad Series (The Likeness), but still enjoyable!

I started reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty a few days before Christmas.  I got just over halfway through it and decided not to finish because it just wasn’t pulling me in like I hoped it would.  At a school trivia night,  one of the moms murders another mom, but we don’t know who dies or committed the murder.  From there, we go back in time a bit and get to know the mothers and their stories.  You see their interactions with each other and find yourself guessing who is dead and who is going to jail.  It looks at the “mom wars” in a whole new light – stay at home moms vs career moms vs stay at home dads vs hippie dippy moms.  You know, the whole gamut.  But for me, the characters weren’t intriguing enough to even care.  In fact, the characters kind of terrified me, because you see just how harshly some moms are judging.  You also see how one little misstep at the beginning of a relationship can set the whole course off-kilter.  This is all a little too real life for me!

People seem to love Moriarty and this is my first book by her, so I am sure that I’ll try another just to make sure this wasn’t a fluke for me.

I hope 2017 is off to a great start for all of you.  I am still very excited that it’s a new year and am wishing for the best!