Mr. Toppit
Louis Bayard
December

When this book arrived on our shelves a few weeks ago, I picked it up and thought it looked good for a December feature. A red cover? Who ever knows why you pick up a book and know it is going to be a good one. The cover? There have been a couple of books I loved that I almost had to wrap in brown paper to sell to people. It’s just a feeling. A sense that in this book, for some reason, some resonance within will connect to you. Then you read the first page and smile and put the book down until you have time to get into it.

Well, this poor book sat buried under all my paperwork, slowly disappearing until that deadline hit to order textra copies for the rapidly approaching month’s end. I made myself sit down and read more, and then leapt to order the stock. I was drawn in so quickly, so completely, how could this novel possibly turn out less than I imagined. But then with all the best intentions, it got buried again.

Last Tuesday night I sat down with it, knowing I would have to read it too quickly to really enjoy it – and what if it was one of those first novels that start out strong and peter away to a sad betrayal of such a strong beginning? If I had really been intrigued wouldn’t I have found time? Nope, my life is just too demanding lately. I fell asleep with it on my face 40 pages from the end at about 3 in the morning. A great read that couldn’t stop me from turning the pages. Everything I thought it was going to be and more.

At first I thought of Jonathan Carroll and one of my favourite novels “Land of Laughs”. Then it made me think of Kate Atkinson’s “One Good Turn” but then Bateman, of “Murphy’s Law”, skated in and out and I finally stopped reading it to review it – and let myself just fall into it and enjoy Elton’s language, character and insight.

Arthur Hayman is the author of The Hayseed Chronicles, five children’s novels which portray his son as the hero and Mr. Toppit, the enigmatic but frightening character he pursues. But Hayman never gets to see the Harry Potter-like rise to world wide acclaim of his books, the translations, the films, and the TV. shows that ensue. An accident with a truck after visiting his bankrupt publisher, Arthur dies never living to see the devastation his book's success has on his family and particularly his son. But now the strange woman who was at Arthur’s side when he was struck down and the offbeat catalyst of the books meteoric success wants her part of the story -- and a crumbling family may not survive the secrets that come to light.

As a story within a story, Mr. Toppit makes you glad you are anonymous but entertains you with a deft blend of black humour, satirical farce and yet a truly touching humanity. I look forward to his next book with pleasure. But it does make me wonder what gems are lurking under all those piles of paper.

On that note of burgeoning New Year’s Resolutions let me take this time to wish all of you from all of us a Merry Holiday and a Shiny New Year

The Black Tower
Louis Bayard
November

If I could, every December I would chose Bayard’s first novel, Mr. Timothy as my feature. When I did so in 2004, it was such a hit with customers (it is still a standard best seller), and it is such a perfect Yule time read, that many others just don’t stack up. Although this isn’t December and The Black Tower isn’t a Christmas or war story, it is still such a great adventure of twisted plots and secrets, charlatans and heroes ... highlighted by Bayard’s beautifully quiet and compelling style ... that I chose this as a feature about six months ago when I knew it would be released. I didn’t care when it was coming out.

Set in the Parisian underworld of 1818 while the city is still reeling from the Revolutions and its political fallout, failed medical student Henry Carpentier stumbles into a trap. One laid for him by the famous and terrifying Vidocq, master and creator of the newly forged police force. Ensnared by his own past, Hector is drawn into the strange search for the true heir to the French throne – the young dauphine, believed to have died in the Temple prison years before as a child. But nothing is as it seems for the young layabout or the vicious Vidocq, the characters and plots within plots pulling them towards such a satisfyingly dramatic conclusion that only stories like this could have.

I truly enjoy Bayard’s writing. Full of atmosphere and deftly written plots turns that never cease to surprise me; he never drowns me in the colour of his language but instead feeds my mind and soul with images and a substance I would never expect with so light a touch. Have I said enough? Just buy this book and if you haven’t read Mr. Timothy save it for under the tree this Noel. Absolutely wonderful --both of them!

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Katherine Howe
October

(I rarely choose a hardcover as out Feature but Jess was so charged about this book when it came in that I had to pick it up – and loved it. She got to write the review and we agreed it would be the perfect book for this special month. Booooooo ... Mahawahaaaaaaaaa)

After reading the inside cover of this book, I was so excited to read it. I love stories about the Salem Witch Trials, especially when they flashback to that time period.

While the title references Deliverance Dane, the main character is Connie Goodwin, a Harvard grad student working on her doctoral dissertation. At the behest of her advisor, she begins the search for a unique primary source on which to focus her research.

Connie, however, gets sidetracked when her mother asks her to go to Marblehead, Massachusetts to prepare her grandmother's house for sale. While going through the house, she discovers an old bible and a hidden key hiding a scroll with the name Deliverance Dane. Curious, Connie begins research to learn more about Deliverance Dane and discovers that she was accused and killed as a witch during the Salem Trials. She also discovers that Deliverance left behind a book of 'recipes' which is later described as a 'physick' book. Connie begins to search for the book and traces the history of Deliverance Dane's family. Along the way, she makes some amazing discoveries and comes to realize that what she discovers could be more than what she is looking for.

This is a fabulous debut novel that weaves together reality, history and academic paranormal theory. The detail is wonderful and I loved the historical interludes. The twisting plot will keep you hooked to the very end. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is an enthralling and magical read!

The Good Thief
Hannah Tinti
September

I've been out of school for quite a few years and yet at the beginning of every September I still feel like I am starting a new year and must get out for notebooks and supplies. I wonder when this ever goes away. So I couldn't pass up this instant classic that rolls Robert Louis Stevenson and other reading-list novels all together into one great read.

The Dickensian cover of Hannah Tinti's new book is a dead giveaway to the rollicking and poignant tale that follows. A young baby is left on the doorstep of a New England monastery missing one hand and the clue to his identity being the few initials sewn into his clothes. Now twelve, Ren waits each day to be adopted out of the line-up of boys when local farmers come to claim them as workers -- or perhaps even sons. Suddenly a man appears claiming to be his uncle and says he has been searching for him for many years fearing him dead. The Brothers are pleased to see Ren adopted knowing that his missing hand would leave him in their care forever. Ren knows that Benjamin Nab is not who he claims and yet within moments they are off – a fantastic ride of cons and thefts and learning from the enigmatic Nab on just how to survive in a vicious nineteenth century world. But Ren also realizes that Benjamin is his only clue to finding out his real identity -- and where he came from.

Tinti's writing is heartbreaking and wry, tender and frightening. I couldn’t put this book down and was fascinated by this messy tribe of unbelievable characters than in someone else's less talented hands could have corrupted into farce and caricature.

This is an excellent book for any age with all the great aspects that intrigued us by the classics and yet still totally updated by a clever and evolving narrator. As her first full novel this is a marvellous debut. Warm and witty, filled with intrigue, mystery and heroes that leap off the page. With cover blurbs by Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) you know this book will get the reading it so richly deserves.

The Creator's Map
Emilio Calderon
August

If you read the back blurb of The Creator's Map you might come away with the impression that this could be just an extremely well written Dan Brown book. And while the intrigue and romance play a certain engaging part of the piece, it is more like John Le Carre and Umberto Eco got together on a historic jaunt.

Set in a Fascist Rome ensnared by the final days of the Spanish Civil War, three refugees are caught up in rival plots to find a map reputed to have been drawn by God himself. Torn between the Papacy and Hitlers maniacal interest in occult objects of antiquity, alliances are drawn and redrawn, love is betrayed and recast and for Jose, our narrator nothing is what it seems or even bothers to stay that way. In a slow, compelling style reminiscent of old war novels, espionage and history wrap around each other so deftly and completely you are lost to the world from the first page to the last.

The Creator's Map is not a historical novel, but it nimbly explores the defeat of ideologies. It is not a romance novel, but it transported along by it. It is not a thriller, as it moves slowly but relentlessly to its surprising denouement. And it is in those final moments of the novel that makes it what it is. A mystery so well executed and thoughtful you will feel totally satiated when you are finished.

Highly recommended!

The Whiskey Rebels
David Liss
July

The one thing I always talk to my customers about is Winter Reading and Summer Reading. They are quite different. In the winter I like to tuck down into a good read, ensconced in front of a fire and fall away. In the summer I have the attention span of a gnat. I am out and about so much enjoying what little of summer we seem to get that I want to be at a street party or a cottage; or sitting at a music festival or theatre under the stars. I need to get into a book and get into it fast and it has to keep me interested from first page to last. So then David Liss, bless his heart, comes along with a book like the Whiskey Rebels and I blew off margaritas on a late night patio to finish it!

Whiskey Rebels is set about ten years after the War of Independence. It introduces two extraordinary characters with two strong narratives that aptly demonstrate the two sides of a financial and political crisis that could have brought down this fledgling government. Ethan Saunders was a patriot spy during the war who was unjustly court-martialled as a collaborator. Now his life destroyed and the woman he loved married to a principle player in the crises, he is a drunken womanizer and on the run from a vengeful husband. To his rescue comes a treacherous agent of Alexander Hamilton's and he is drawn into a deadly plot against the government and threatens the welfare of his lost love.

Joan Maycott begins her life as a naive but incredibly well-educated young woman who after discovering the "novel" sets out to educate herself on life and write the first truly American work of fiction. When she and her new husband choose to sell his war scripts to a very dangerous man for land in the west, her life becomes a tale she could never have imagined.

How Liss brings these two parallel stories together is so well realised, so compelling that when you are forced to put it down you are still consumed by the unforeseen plot twists and enthralling characters. This is a big book. Fast paced, and well developed. I’ve always liked this author's writing, but he has outdone himself this time.

I would have loved this book at any time of the year. But the best thing about it is that you won’t have to feel guilty about reading trash this summer. This novel has more wit, more action and more thought than you will find anywhere. So in case you haven’t guessed it by now ... buy this book, highly recommended is an understatement.

Wit's End
Karen Joy Fowler
June

Our feature book for this month was cancelled, so Jess and I chose a book we both thought looked good for a replacement. Whoever finished the novel first got to write the review and she won. Now I owe her something and it scares me to think what :)

Following the death of her younger brother and father (her mother passed away when she was young), Rima Lansill heads to Santa Cruz to spend some time with her godmother, famous mystery author Addison Early. While there, Rima meets a colourful cast of characters including two dog-walkers, a formerly alcoholic cook and her son, and a stalker. While staying at Wit's End (Early's house), Rima tries to answer some questions that have been on her mind for quite some time, including why her godmother named one of her characters after Rima's father (a character that killed his wife).

Throughout the novel, the boundary between fiction and fact is often blurred as Rima receives help from fictional detective Maxwell Lane. Rima also makes use of old fan mail Maxwell received referencing past events so the story often flips between the past and present. In her search for the truth, Rima finds some answers as well as a new family at Wit's End. This is a mystery novel with heart!

My only caution to readers is to take the time to really read this. With the jumps between fact and fiction and from the present to the past it's easy to lose track of what is going on and whether or not you're reading about a "real" person or their fictional counterpart.

As an added bit of fun, Addison creates dollhouses of each mystery novel before writing the story and these houses remain in her house along with the victims (at least until one of the doll victims is stolen).

The Sugar Queen
Sarah Addison Allen
May

(Our resident Candy Queen leapt to the forefront with the suggestion of this book as our feature this month and you wouldn't want to say no to her when she’s on a wine gum high!)

Sarah Addison Allen has quickly become one of my favourite authors! After reading her first novel, Garden Spells, I hoped she would be able to write another truly magical story. She has! The Sugar Queen may even be better (I may be slightly biased as I love candy and each chapter title features a different type of my favourite snack).

In this story, we meet Josey, a woman in her twenties who spends her time caring for her mother in an effort to make up for the difficulties she put her through as a child. Not really living her life, Josey escapes into books, magazines and candy (all of which she hides in her closet). One morning, when she discovers a woman in her closet, her world begins to change and she really begins to live her own life.

Sarah Addison Allen manages to write a story of love, magic and food that connects you to the characters and makes you not want to let them go at the end. I have read this book twice and anticipate reading it again and again! Definitely one of the best books on my shelf (and trust me, there are a lot of books on my shelf!). Pure magic!

PS The only problem I have with this book is that the cover changed when it was printed in trade paperback (it was quite pretty in hardcover). Not to worry though, it is still quite nice.

The Third Angel
Alice Hoffman
April

When I scroll back through our past features I see I have rarely passed up an Alice Hoffman book as a choice. This month is no different as The Third Angel is an auspicious introduction to this author if you haven't read her yet. If you have, you will be reminded of the beauty of her style, the tremendous understanding of her characters and the way you feel when you put one of her novels down. Charmed by her magic and warmed by her humanity.

The Third Angel reveals its story like a canvas unfurling; a little bit at a time from different perspectives, but unwinding backwards to reveal the whole truth. Four characters stories are set around an old style hotel in London, haunted by a past tragedy and its ghost. You as the reader come to understand that you are the connecting thread; only you are aware of the myriad connections between the characters past and present, the hotel and each other.

But a stronger strand than the reader's perspective is what we are willing to sacrifice for love. That overwhelming, all-encompassing destructive love and what it can make us do. These are not weak women led astray by emotions they don't understand. But only a writer with Hoffman's undeniable talent can examine so deeply what redemption we find from that self-immolation. And what we become coming out the other side.

Highly recommended, The Third Angel will delight your head and your heart. As a fan, you know what to expect; as an initiate you will wonder why you waited so long.

I Predict a Riot
Bateman
March


March is the beginning of Spring and the arrival of St. Pat's Day. And for all those of us that love our Guinness and love the Green, I set out to find a writer and a book that brought it all home to us. I Predict A Riot is all that and more – just hold onto your glass and come away. If you haven’t read Colin Bateman, who has lost his first name somewhere along the way, this is the book that will make you understand why he is one of the top-selling authors in the UK.

If Christopher Moore and Guy Ritchie had been best friends growing up in Northern Ireland, this is the book or possible screenplay they would have written together. There are so many interconnected plots and characters that interweave throughout the book it is almost impossible to pull at a thread to describe just one. There is a hardman cop trying to finally bring down his nemesis, "Pink" Harrison. There is a "fraught by circumstances" couple who meet through an online dating service, a conniving pensioner who throws herself in front of cars to meet friends, a poisoned carrot cake, a headless, armless, legless corpse and of course, rotten politicians with diabolic agendas. Take all these elements and mix them into a foamy concoction of deadpan humour, sparkling wit, pathos, villainy and politics and it becomes a dark and frisky stout of a book that will knock you off your seat.

Batemen's writing is clever and sincere. Setting the novel ten years after the ending of the "Troubles", he tickles and taunts us with images of Ireland both old and new. Progress? What progress? But change is coming and the contrasting black humour of the various surreal plots with the knife sharp tragedy of Ireland’s sectarian madness and political graft make this novel a solid read you don't want to put down.

This Night's Foul Work
Fred Vargas
February

One of the many things I love about bookselling is recommending books to people. The best thing, actually. But what I also love is the recommendations many of my customers give me. Well, a couple of my favourite mystery readers (including my sales rep) have beat me about the head to try this woman (yep, Fred) for a few years and I finally sat down two weeks ago and did just that. Wow! What have I been missing, but also, what I have to look forward too!

Take Ian Rankin's serialization, P.D. James subtle build of tension and introspective, thoughtful characters and mix with air-tight plotting, quirky humour and a touch of whimsy and you might actually come close to what Vargas pulls together in a novel. This Night's Foul Work has just arrived in January and drops us into the middle of her world; which is not as bad as you might think, if you love to read author's books in order. As you sink into this work in the first couple of pages, with hints of events past littered throughout, you are driven to read further but are happy to know there is more to discover when you put this one down.

Commissaire Adamsberg is a beyond eccentric police officer who heads up a team of equally odd investigators in Paris. Not satisfied to sit behind a desk in his stuffy offices, Adamsberg travels to the crime and can unwittingly bring the crimes of his past with him. In this latest incident, two thugs have been found with their throats slit and their hands dirty from digging. Trying to find some evidence to keep the bodies under his purvue and out of the hands of the Drug Squad, Adamsberg discovers that two stags in Normandy have had their hearts cut out on the same night as the killings. Both events seem unrelated until he discovers a possible serial killer that is hunting young virgins. With the help of an adversary from his past and thwarted by a new recruit; Adamsberg is a gently intuitive, over-sexed Herucle Poirot that leads us diligently down a tightly winding staircase to a sudden drop.

This is a great read. Absorbing and quiet it sneaks up on you until you are forced to put it down. Translator Sian Reynolds does an amazing job of communicating the power of Vargas' work, although I am sure the English idioms scattered throughout would cause many French to "cock an eyebrow".

All I can say is a hearty thanks to those (you know who you are) who recommended this stunning writer to me. Now I am off to find out what happened in Canada the previous year. Be afraid, be very afraid.