The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn

 

First Lines: Prologue. October 2021. He raises his head from the sink and looks in the mirror.

 

Long Covid took fifteen months of Claire Thomson's life. Fifteen months that she'll never get back. Staying with her grandmother in Dubrovnik, Croatia should give her a fresh start-- even though she's still very nervous about being around other people and the chance that she'll contract Covid again.

 

Becoming the manager of The Welcoming Bookshop brings Claire back to the work she loves, and it also brings her new friends. There's bookshop employee, Luna, a young lesbian who wants to become part of the gay community but isn't quite sure how to go about it. There's Claire's cousin, Vedran, branded by social media as the killer of his missing girlfriend, and there's Karmela, a history professor haunted by her family's escape from wartorn Sarajevo when she was a child. These four along with several university students form a book club that will eventually change their lives.

 

~

 

The Dubrovnik Book Club is a Harlequin romance-type book that's still an enjoyable read (even more so if you like romance novels). The old buildings and history of Dubrovnik come to vivid life, and I almost felt as though I were walking its streets along with the characters.

 

The Welcoming Bookshop lives up to its name, truly welcoming all to its door. The books the club members choose to read highlight inclusiveness and show how each of the characters grows. 

 

I found all four main characters interesting. Each one of them feels that they have good reasons to hide away from others. Luna, a young, bubbly lesbian, is nervous about coming out because she's from a very restrictive and traditional family. Claire, an Englishwoman who used to work in London's Foyles Bookshop, has to overcome her fear of a recurrence of Covid. Claire's cousin, Vedran, has been pilloried by social media after his girlfriend disappeared, and it's this disappearance that fuels the mystery that the book club members work to solve. Karmela has felt like an outsider ever since her parents took her out of Sarajevo before the city was torn apart by war. She feels that there is some sort of shame in her escape, especially since it took her away from her dearest friends. Each one of these characters fights his or her demons with the help of the other book club members. 

Each character's story is interesting, and I liked the solution to the mystery of the woman's disappearance. But, most of all, I enjoyed spending time in Dubrovnik, and I appreciated the Croatian glossary at the back of the book. If you're in the mood for a light, pleasant read in an exotic location, The Dubrovnik Book Club would be a good choice.

The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn

eISBN: 9780008648107

One More Chapter © 2024

eBook, 384 pages

 

Contemporary Fiction, Standalone

Rating: C+

Source: Net Galley

The Vermeer Deception by Jennifer S. Alderson

First Line: Kurt Weber gazed out the tenth-story window, taking in the first leaves of spring budding on the tree outside his doctor's office.

When Zelda Richardson finds a lead about a missing portrait by Johannes Vermeer, no one expects her to find the painting. No one believes she can do it: not her parents visiting from America, not her boyfriend, not her boss private detective Vincent de Graaf, and not the rightful owner of the Nazi-looted artwork-- but she does.

When Zelda tries to pick up the portrait, she finds the art dealer dead and several frames smoldering in his fireplace.  Was the Vermeer a fake? Everyone else seems to think so, but Zelda refuses to give up. Can she discover the truth?

I love art and art history. When I came across The Vermeer Deception, I couldn't resist reading it. "Art history mysteries" are one of my favorite subgenres of the mystery world. (Iain Pears' Jonathan Argyll mysteries like The Bernini Bust are wonderful.) However, I found Jennifer Alderson's book to be mostly annoying.

The one thing I did enjoy about the book was the information I gleaned about the men Hitler sent out to loot Europe of its art treasures. That was good. Unfortunately, that was the only thing. By the fourth book in a series, the doubts about a person's abilities should be dying out. Not here. No one-- not even her boss-- thought she knew what she was doing. Personally, I'd ask Vincent the boss that, if she's so inept, why is she still on the payroll? The other characters, like Zelda's mother and boyfriend, were also infuriating, and finding errors such as arms that were flaying instead of flailing didn't help.

The ending, which isn't tied up in a neat little bow, didn't bother me. What bothered me the most were the characterizations and a rather amateurish writing style. Needless to say, I'll be looking for art history mysteries elsewhere.

The Vermeer Deception by Jennifer S. Alderson

ASIN: B082R5XZQC

Traveling Life Press © 2020

eBook, 191 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #4 Zelda Richardson mystery

Rating: C-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

 

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

First Line: Sunset is often a glamorous business in the Cretan holiday harbour of Chania.

A disused Victorian building is being demolished in the center of historic Edinburgh when workers find skeletal remains hidden on the roof. Call in cold case Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie to find answers for all the questions. When it turns out that the bones may be from as far away as the former Yugoslavia, she is going to have to dig deep into the tragic history of that area and into unspeakable war crimes and their consequences.

McDermid has once again crafted an engrossing mystery filled with memorable characters and questions. I still can't quite understand how all the horrific things that occurred in Bosnia and Serbia have faded so quickly and determinedly into the dim past. Without going into masses of gory details, McDermid brings those times to life through the characters she has created.

If anything, there may be a few too many characters, a few too many points of view, that occasionally slow the pace of the book. We have DCI Karen Pirie and her life partner (and fellow police officer) Phil. Pirie's on-the-job partner, Detective Constable Jason "the Mint" Murray. Prickly Oxford professor Maggie Blake, and Macanespie and Proctor, two men trying to find war criminals for the International Criminal Court. And I haven't named them all.

Macanespie and Proctor are sometimes referred to as "the dead-end kids," and they provide some much-needed comic relief while they plod through miles of paperwork in search of the bad guys. Pirie often feels as though DC Murray is the albatross hanging around her neck. The young man tends to be as thick as a plank and has absolutely no initiative, but it is heartwarming to see that he is actually learning things by working with her. Pirie does treat him well, regardless what she may think in private. There are also some highly emotional scenes when one of the characters is rushed to the hospital, and I wish I'd had a box of tissues at hand while reading that part.

Yes, McDermid has written a complex, thought-provoking story filled with complex characters. The Skeleton Road is only slightly marred by too many shifts in points of view. It reminds me of why I like Val McDermid's writing so much-- and why I shouldn't take so long to read another of her books.
     

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

eISBN: 9780802192141

Atlantic Monthly Press © 2014

eBook, 406 pages

Police Procedural, #2 DCI Karen Pirie mystery

Rating: A-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.