nomadreader

The backstory: Elizabeth Is Missing , Emma Healey's debut novel, is on the 2015 Baileys Prize longlist. It was also longlisted for the 2014 Dylan Thomas Prize . The basics: Elizabeth Is Missing  is the story of Maud, an older woman suffering from Alzheimer's. Her friend Elizabeth is missing. Through flashbacks, we also see Maud as a young woman and her struggles with the disappearance of her older sister, Sukey, shortly after World War II. My thoughts: This novel is billed as a psychological thriller, which I don't think it actually is. It is a compelling page turner, but the titular mystery is the least interesting thing about it. It's emotionally complex, and it's definitely a page turner, but I found the mystery of Elizabeth to be not much of a mystery. Instead, the mystery of Sukey is what fascinated me more. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the novel is Maud herself and how much she misunderstands and mis-remembers. As I read Elizabeth Is Missing ...

narrated by Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, and India Fisher The basics: Rachel, the titular girl on the train, commutes about an hour into London each day. On her commute, the train stops near the home of Megan, and Rachel imagines, and longs for, her life. One day, she sees Megan at her house with another man. The next day, Megan goes missing and is all over the news. My thoughts: The Girl on the Train  is the breakout novel of the season. And it's a good one. It's a literary thriller with well-drawn, interesting characters. I enjoyed the journey as much as the destination (a cringe-worthy pun for a novel about a train, I know.) In short, The Girl on the Train  is so successful because it is both appealing to the masses with its fast-paced plot and appealing to more serious readers with its depth and themes. Rachel is an unreliable narrator, yet she was my favorite character, and I identified with her the most. She's not unreliable for nefarious reasons but because...

The basics: Mr. Heming is real estate broker in a small village outside London. His past is somewhat mysterious, and he intentionally blends into every day life to help hide his secrets. The biggest: he keeps a key to every house he's ever sold, and he frequently uses them to visit the homes months and years later. My thoughts: I picked up A Pleasure and a Calling  from my virtual TBR without knowing much about it. And I spent the next twenty-four hours devouring it in its entirety. Mr. Heming is a delightful, albeit creepy narrator. I suppose I'd categorize this novel as a thriller, but Hogan develops the character of Mr. Heming so well that his creepiness is balanced by other attributes: "The truth was that rampant sexual relationships are all very fine and necessary, but, for me, real intimacy is elsewhere." As a narrator, Mr. Heming is both reliable and unreliable. He shares intimate, and often unflattering, details about himself with the reader: "I am ...