My New Favorite Canadian Writer

A work colleague recommended Couple Next Door by Shari Lapeña to me and now Lapena has become one of my favorite Canadian thriller writers.  After reading that debut novel by Lapena, I followed up with Someone We Know about a teenager who breaks into the homes of his neighbors and hacks into their computers to read their hidden secrets, just for the fun of it.  Also, someone in the neighborhood has been reported missing by her husband. Later her body is discovered.  As the police investigate, things that were hidden are revealed one by one. It was exciting to follow the story-line to see how the computer hacking and the dead body connected.

I just completed a third book by this writer, An Unwanted Guest. Several guests turn up at this secluded mountain lodge for a weekend get-away. It was supposed to be a romantic get-away for some couples and a place of peace and quiet to rest and recuperate for some other individuals. For one guest it was supposed to be a quiet place of work; she was a writer. They arrived in bad weather. One person is murdered, then another, then another, and yet another. The place of peace and quiet turned into a death trap. I certainly could not guess who the killer(s) was or were or guess the motives while I was reading. None of the guests seemed to have had a history prior to being at the lodge. The most likely killer of the first deceased guest just seemed to have been her romantic partner. When the second guest died, it seemed like perhaps there was an outsider who was committing these murders. 

I could not put the books down. I finished reading each book in  about two days. The books are not at the level of Louise Penny, my other favorite Canadian writer, but I have enjoyed all three books.

What’s on Your Must Read List for 2020?

Dear Book-lovers,

My Must Read list is getting longer. I am reading She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, winners of a Pulitzer Prize. This book is about how journalists got their stories on sexual harassment and assaults, mainly in the work place, and how it triggered the #MeToo movement. Most of the book was focused on the movie producer Harvey Weinstein (link to NPR article with caution, graphic details), whose court case is currently in process. This is a fascinating account of what goes on in journalism behind the scenes, before we get to read and watch it in real time.

After that I hope to move on to A. J. Finn’s book, The Woman in the Window, a psychological thriller about a woman suffering from agoraphobia who sees, through her window of course, a crime being committed. I discovered a movie trailer on YouTube for that book. Check it out yourself! The movie will be released in May. 

I read a review of The Eiffel Tower Prophecy by D.B. Gilles in FIRST magazine that caught my interest. It’s a time travel story that goes back to Paris in 1889.  The reviewer, Carlo DeCatlo, said the book was impossible to put down. That is my kind of book.

What’s on your Must Read List?