This is a complex story of love, betrayal and courage told with exceptional skill. Written in heart wrenching prose “The Winemaker’s Wife” goes back and forth between time and the present: Champagne, 1940 and 2019.
1940
The story gives us a different perspective of Germany occupied France. As it opens Ines has just married Michel, then owner of the champagne house Maison Chauveau when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts Michel joins the resistance. When rumours about Jews being deported… fear sets in… Celine, Michel’s chef de cave’s wife, is half Jewish….. They are afraid of being exposed…
Ines and Celine are the main voices and tell their point of views in alternate chapters as the war moves on. Celine tends to follow her heart and Ines eventually makes a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator….There side is told with warmth and emotions…
2019
In New York Grandmother Edith shows up at Liv Kent’s home insisting on a trip to France, she has something in mind and wants to share her tragic story with her granddaughter.
Edith and Liv are the driving voices when the story moves to the present.
More thoughts:
Actually we have two stories and at first I was wondering where the connection might be. The author keeps giving tidbits of information teasing till the denouement. The suspense is held throughout and very well-done. Although the plot moves very slowly and nothing melodramatic happens well into the novel I was nevertheless deeply engaged from the get-go. This tragic story inspired by real events tells how people make desperate choices in order to survive and is one that offers many twists which I did not see coming.
War stories are my favourite, even if they are fictional there is always some truth to them. “The Winemaker’s Wife” is set amid the champagne vineyards of northern France and we have a small view of how it may have operated during this hard time…right or wrong I do not care, the description is vivid and the drama lively….
Eventually the past and present merge and we are back to the caves of Maison Chauveau. Well-done.
I received this ARC from the publisher Simon& Schuster via NetGalleys for my thoughts
Book #12, in the Ava Lee series
Ava is in Shanghai with Pang Fai to visit her ailing friend Xu when a violent triad war breaks out between two feuding gangs vying for control of the Wanchai territory in Hong Kong. Ava steps in to broker a settlement.
This 12th novel does not disappoint. The turf war between the Wings clan who is trying to take back power from Xu, the head of triads, is mixed with cold brutality and provides a fascinating peek into a disturbing world we hear of but hopefully never see. Nothing is subtle with their methods…..
When Xu’s soldiers are kidnapped and the Wings threaten to execute them after sending a box containing six fingers and a twelve hour deadline, Ava is driven to the edge and devises a plan that only death will solve…but who will fall first.
I love Ava Lee she is a female sleuth extraordinaire. In this latest she steps away from recuperating stolen cash and other business ventures to concentrate on being the negotiator between two fearless gangs and help Xu regain full control. The plot is suspenseful and intriguing of course we find lots of violence to make us cringe. Ava is at her best, the challenges she faces are intriguing. The action never ends, move fast and is very captivating, quite a page turner. No worries if you pick up this series here, there is enough backstories to situate the new comers and not too many details to overwhelm the avid fans…..
Once again, Mr. Hamilton has penned a great thriller for our enjoyment and he surely hit the button with this one. . Well-done as usual I love this series.
Many thanks to the publisher House of Anansi Press and to Edelweiss for this ARC
Alex Trout Thriller # 7
Redemption Thriller # 19
I love this series, love Alex and love that she is teaming up with Ozzie in this mystery. (Ozzie is the main character in the Ozzie Novack series). Although part of a series, all of the books can technically be read alone without missing too much but I strongly suggest you read them in sequence.
This is a good mystery with edge of your seat action and suspense. The plot brings back memories of the Boston Marathon terror attack that occurred in 2013. “At Stake” sounds and visuals are right on. It opens with hysteria when in the crowd bombs went off and Alex’s partner is injured now in hospital clinging to life. Alex is Alex and she will not take orders to step down….
Of course she is all action but if you think you can figure out what is going to happen, well you would be back to square one in no time, so I am warning you Mr. Mefford throws lots of kinks in the mix to derail us. The plot is crafted to give us excitement and thrills to keep us turning the pages. I like Alex’s showdown with the most vicious villain, it gives us all the suspense imaginable. Mr. Mefford is a gifted storyteller, his imagination has no limits. This time, taking an actual event then spinning his web of intrigue and making an excellent story for us to be captivated with. He doesn’t fail…..of course to lure us even more the story ends in a cliff-hanger….Stay tuned…next “At Any Cost”
This psychological suspense novel revolves around an unsolved incident at a summer camp and a disturbing family reunion 20 years later.
20 years ago:
Amanda Holmes was found bludgeoned in a rowboat at the MacAllister family camp. What really happened to her that day and why was no one ever charged with the crime.
Present time:
After the death of their parents, the siblings return to the camp for the reading of the will and to settle the estate. But the will stipulate they need to unravel the mystery of what happened to Amanda before they can inherit.
My thoughts:
“I’ll Never tell” unwraps its mystery drop by drop and lets you wonder till the very last page how deeply buried is the family secret…..It is told with deftness and surety as we are placed in the middle of the family drama. Grown up the siblings fight as they did as kids and while they reminisce their time at the camp years ago we feel part of the scenario. The story goes back and forth from one sibling to another, from secondary character to another, from the present and in flashback to the pass. This may seem a bit confusing at times and may be hard to keep everyone in place, since each brings a different perspective and more secrets. But the excellent narrative, the driving force here that pushes the plot forward and eventually everything meshes nicely and falls into place…as results I never guessed who was behind….what a satisfying ending.
I have to admit, at first I found this story way too slow and somewhat boring but I fast changed my mind as the story progressed. I was deeply into it mid-way and found it hard to put it down since I wanted to know what really happened to Amanda. Those tidbits of information just kept me going…nicely done.
“I’ll Never Tell” is a gritty mystery that kept me guessing and wondering till the very end. This latest has to be Ms. McKenzie’s best so far.
I received this ARC from Simon& Schuster Canada via Net Galleys for my thoughts
Book #9, in the John Wells series
After book # 8, I needed to take a long break from this series in fact it has been over 4 ½ years since I read “The Counterfeit”, why did I wait so long to get to “Twelve Days” ….I really had enough with problems between the US and Iran, this series was getting stale to me….I finally had to put it on my read shelf once and for all so here I am with my thoughts…..
“Twelve Days”, starts where the prequel left us. If you pick up this series here, no worries, there is a lot of information dumps for the new readers to catch up, although I recommend you read the previous installments first. This series is built around John Wells, an American intelligence operative and the main focus is a countdown to battle between the US and Iran.
It opens with a bag. A shoulder –fired rocket brings down a passenger jet. Iran is suspected to be behind this tragedy. The fictional US president has then decided that Iran has a bomb and has ordered strikes against the country, given 12 days to come clean…but Iran doesn’t really have the bomb…. So what then… our super-human goes through a series of adventures and misadventures to save the day and at times he does entertain us.
Unfortunately, this story tends to meander way too much. A good part is essentially recaps of the previous books. It seems the author was struggling to fill the pages to give us the action we came to expect. Wells is all over the place he jumps from the Middle East, to Russia, to South Africa and to the US while battling his own government which is convinced the evidence against Iran is solid. What a conspiracy theory….12 days countdown till the last hour… can this scenario be possible? No it sounds unrealistic/unbelievable for a government to do this….or could this happen someday….or could a third party as suggested in this plot be behind this kind of conspiracy…..
I had a hard time staying with this book. It took way to long, not until half way through before the author gets going from there finally the story picks up and the plot has some spring into it. Most action scenes are bland some are captivating but nothing original comes out and things drags on and on and on…..finally Wells save the day and the world is a better place for it….haha
This is Ms. Leon’s first standalone novel after a long series of mysteries featuring Commissario Brunetti. In “The Jewel of Paradis” Caterina Pellegrini, an opera expert from Manchester comes back to Venice to research the contents of trunks believed to have belonged to a renowned baroque composer, Agostino Steffani, so that his descendants can divide the estate.
This is one of the most difficult books I read in a long time. Ms Leons serves up so much historical detail, obscure names and subjects. It seemed this story showcases more the author knowledge in Italian, cultural events and classics in music and literature. So, if you are not into baroque opera you may find this story heavy, neither enjoyable nor interesting.
There may be a mystery somewhere but the actual story line is so sparse and boring I was hoping for a quick ending….”This is definitely a paradise lost…..” I have no more to say……
